Snake's Eyes
by Dragon-Ninjagirl
Summary: Axel had left the team to find his father. Four years later he comes back but finds LC in a bad situation. Lee got the control back, clones are just like in Axel's dream police officers. He can find his team again that teamed up with Tilian to beat Lee!
1. Comeback After Years

Comeback after Years

Axel took his baggage and went out of the train. The picture in front of him shocked him. The railway station of Landmark City was completely empty! And this wasn´t the only thing that scared him. Normally the trains to Landmark City were filled with a lot of people, but now there was no one except him. Slowly and thoughtfully he left the platform while hearing the train behind him left the railway station.

On some corners of the building he saw tall men in darkblue uniforms. _Officers_, thought Axel and glanced at them as he passed. He threw his baggage over his shoulder and walked straight into the mainbuilding. Even here he didn´t meet anyone. Everything was empty. Just the officers stood there.

Axel had to walk through a small gate. He noticed cameras checked him, then he was allowed to continue walking. But then a large fence was in his way, this was a dead end. On the other side of the fence he saw officers bringing two frightened looking persons away. Their shocked faces looked desperated and tired. Axel turned around and tapped on the shoulder of an officer who turned around at once.

"Excuse me, officer, but can you-" He stopped and looked shocked into the officer´s face. It was Tilian! Surprised Axel dropped his baggage and went into fighting position. "Tilian? Why are you an officer?"

Tilian looked at Axel. "Sir, do you want to know something? If not, continue walking, please", hissed the officer. Axel was confused and relaxed a little.

"Er...yeah...sorry", said Axel just, grabbed his baggage and continued walking. Only now he noticed there was a door in the fence. He looked one last time at the officer, then he walked through the door. Now he stood between two fences. The door was locked by another officer, he looked like Tilian, too. Axel looked around. Some flying cameras focused him, then suddenly a door to his right opened.

Another officer stepped out of it.

"What´s wrong with him?", he asked another officer next to the fence.

"He has no ID. We´re going to send him to the high security prison", hissed the one behind the fence.

"Alright. I´ll check his personalitlies and send him to you in less than half an hour", said the new officer. The other one nodded and went back to his position. The new officer came over to Axel and grabbed his shoulder. "Follow me", he just said, turned around and went through the door. He stopped in front of another door, opened it and pushed Axel into it.

In the room were two chairs, a table and a camera in the corner of the room. The officer locked the door tightly, then he told Axel to sit down. So he did. Meanwhile the officer turned off the camera and came over to Axel.

"Never thought I´d see you again", he grinned and put off his helmet.

"Who are you?", asked Axel confused and was about to stand up. The officer who looked like Tilian, too, held him back.

"You don´t remember your clone?" Tilian smiled.

"Tilian? Is that the real you?"

The clone nodded. Axel jumped up and went into fighting position. Tilian shook his head. "There´s no need to fight me. I´m on your side."

Axel was obviously confused. "What?" He relaxed a little. "What happened to this city?"

Tilian sighed. "After you disappeared your team broke up. Lee saw a great chance and produced more clones of you, even better ones. Soon he forgot the old Mu-Team. I don´t know what happened to the rest of my team, they´re gone. With the new and improved clones he could get the control over the whole city, he made them to police officers and so on. After a year Lee had the complete control over the whole city. Now he´s president. For life."

Axel looked shocked. "But...why are you on my side?"

Tilian smirked slightly. "I told you, Lee forgot the old Mu-Team. With the improved reptile-clones I was useless for him. Soon I got to know he wanted to eliminate everything that was too weak. So me too. I escaped, found your team and convinced them that I was on their side", he explained.

"You told me they split up..."

"Yeah, it was hard to find them all, but finally I could get them together again and meanwhile we all belong to a not small group of people who are against Lee´s insane plans. You´re such a fool that you´re coming back. But you´re exactly the one we needed."

"Wha- wait, hold line. I still don´t get it! Lee is president for life? You are on our side? I get a headache..." Axel frowned and looked at Tilian.

"There´s no time now. I have to get you away from here. Follow me", said Tilian. Axel grabbed his baggage and followed his clone. He still couldn´t believe everything. Four years not in Landmark City and at once everything changed.

Tilian walked through a door. There was a small room with a window. "Get through that window and go to this address", he explained and gave Axel a piece of paper with a quickly written address.

"When you´re there you´ll find a big poster of president Lee in the cellar. Knock three times at the wall and push Lee´s left eye. Then a door will open which leads you to our hiding place. Go now, before the others find out I helped you!"

"But what are you going to do?", asked Axel as he wanted to climb out of the window.

"Don´t worry, I´m coming in the evening. Go now! Make sure no one sees you!"

Axel nodded, climbed out of the window and down the fire stairs. On the street he threw his baggage over his shoulder and walked through some small lanes to the address Tilian had given him. It wasn´t far away and on his way Axel met not any officer. Relieved no one saw him he went into an old house. It looked very broken and dirty and some windows were broken.

He walked in and downstairs to the cellar. Soon he found a big poster of president Lee. Axel hesitated before he knocked. He would see all his old friends again. What would they say? He had left them without saying a word, without telling them he´d leave...

_Flashback_

_Axel ran into his room and grabbed a baggage from under his bed. Then he went to his wardrobe and threw some clothes into it. After packing the most needed things he ran out of his room, grabbed his jacket and drove as fast as he could to the airport. He didn´t even say any word to his friends, he just wanted to leave. _

_After all night at the computer he had finally found out something about his father. And the only place where he could more details was the temple of Jo-Lan. And he had to go there as fast as he could, otherwise it would be too late. The only monch there who could help him was about to go to Japan for some longer time in less than one week. _

_Axel hurried into the plane and relaxed just as it was about to take off..._

_End Flashback_

Axel knocked three times at the wall and pushed Lee´s left eye then. Quietly a door swang open and Axel stepped through it. He found himself in a dark corridor, the hidden door behind him closed again so there was no light. Suddenly a red laser scanned him and after finishing the scanning process an alert turned on. Three guns came out of the walls and aimed at Axel.

Alarmed he rose his hands into the air. "Er...guys? It´s me, Axel!", he said to the guns, hoping anyone would hear him. It worked. The guns disappeared in the walls again and another door in front of him opened.

Someone stood in the doorway and came towards him. This one wore a dark mask. "Follow me", he said shortly and Axel followed the man out of the dark room. They walked down some stairs until the two went through another door, which was a high security door. The man placed in front of the retina-scanner and after the scan the door opened. Axel followed confused.

Now there was a large hall. There was a balcony all around the hall, in one corner stood three couches which looked a little older. Some posters were on the wall, in another corner were a lot of computer screens and large keyboards. Cables laid all over the floor around the computer. Axel saw a kitchen in another corner of this room, there was a long table with at least ten chairs.

No windows were in the walls, some lamps under the ceiling spent light. Axel was amazed. Then he looked at the man in front of him who took off his mask and smiled at Axel.

"King? Is that you?", asked Axel confused. King nodded. Happy to see his old friend again Axel dropped his baggage and hugged King tightly. As the gentle giant let him go Axel rose an eyebrow.

"What happened? Where are the others? Why is Lee president and why-"

"Calm down, I´ll explain everything to you later. Now, do you wanna see the others?"

"They´re here?"

King nodded. And Axel agreed at once. King just grinned and pushed a red button next to the door. An alert under the ceiling flashed and a loud noise was to hear everywhere. At once three figures ran into the room, ready to fight.

"King, what´s up?", asked a guy with red hair and looked at King who turned off the alert. King just grinned.

"We have a guest."

Axel smiled shyly. He was afraid to see his old friends again. Shark, who stood next to Hawk, started smiling over his whole face. "Duuuuude!", he yelled and fell around Axel´s neck to hug him tightly. Hawk did the same.

"Long time no see!", he said and smiled. "Where have you been?"

"Good question", said the voice of a girl behind the two guys. At once the two let Axel go and took a step sidewards so Lioness could look at him. She stood there with crossed arms and an angry face. "Where have you been?!" She nearly shouted.

"I..." Axel stopped and lowed his head. He looked at the ground. An uncomfortable feeling was in his throat, he swallowed dryly. Lioness came towards him.

"Anyway", she began and looked into his eyes. Then she hugged him tightly and closed her eyes. He hugged her back. "Good to see you again." She whispered.

"Li, I´m so sorry..."

"That doesn´t matter now", she said and let him go, tears in her eyes. "We have more important things to do."

"Can anyone tell me what´s up here?", asked Axel.

"Maybe I can", said a voice behind them and they all whirled around.

**So, this is the first chapter of this story. I hope ya really like it!! **


	2. Explanations

Explanations

"Garrett?" Axel looked confused and surprised at the guy in the wheelchair behind him. He grinned slightly.

"Good to see you again", he said.

"What happened to you guys? Lee became president?" Axel was obviously confused. He looked at everyone. Garrett just nodded as reply and rolled over to the computers in one corner of the large room. Axel followed him, the others did, too. Garrett switched on the screens and typed something. Pictures of supervision cameras appeared on the different screens.

"Let me tell you about the situation", began Garrett and zoomed with one camera. "Here, after you were gone the team split up, no one was there to stop Lee. But one day when I was working in the lab in the university suddenly someone appeared. Tilian came to me and told me that Lee decided to destroy the old Mu-Team to create even better creatures with your DNA. And they became guards now."

The footage showed one or two guards patroulling on the streets. They looked exactly like Tilian. Garrett pointed at another screen. It showed the tower of Lee Industries. "This is Lee´s headquarter now. He works there everyday, as far as I know he´s working on even better clones."

"But why is Tilian...your friend?" Axel was still a little confused as he remembered Tilian had helped him.

"Because he was afraid Lee would destroy him. He searched each one of us and brought us together again. We´re thankful he did, otherwise we´d be all Lee´s silly and kind citizens now", explained Lioness.

"What is so bad on being just someone normal?"

Hawk laughed ironically. "You have no idea, do you?"

Axel shook his head. Hawk sighed. "The citizens live under strict rules. They are not allowed to stay outside after eight in the evening, and they only can get out after seven o'clock in the morning. With other words, they are prisoners of their own houses, if you wanna say it so."

"Everyone works for Lee. And that for not much money. It´s enough to live. But not everyone wants to listen to Lee´s orders. Well, most of people up there are too afraid the cops could catch them if they don´t obey. But the bravest of them founded an underground organisation against Lee", explained King.

"And you guys are in it, I guess?" Axel looked at them.

"Yes, we´re station number 12. We have exactly 25 stations in this town. Most of them are under the ground, in the canalisation, or in old buildings and so on. The only places Lee won´t find", said Garrett.

"But last week we heard from another station that they sent some patrols down here. Fortunately no one was hurt, they all could escape. But station 8 is lost for the next longer time. I bet Lee expects someone would come back. The dudes who lived there came under in other stations. We won´t go back to station number 8, it´s too dangerous", added Shark. He looked seriuos now, a side of him Axel didn´t know yet.

"We even cut the contact to this station, otherwise Lee could find us easily with tracking the signal down", said Garrett and turned off the screens again. "But you´re exactly the person we need most now, Axel."

"Why me? I haven´t been here for four years and you guys built up an amazing underground organisation against the president of this state..all alone, I have to add", said Axel and looked at his friends.

"Yeah, but its sense is to hide from Lee until we have a real plan to strike back. Now that you´re here we finally could get any idea to beat him", said Lioness hopefully. "But...where have you been all these years?"

"I...I wanted to talk to a monch in the Jo-Lan temple. The only one who knew my father very good. But I was too late, he was gone. The other monchs told me he went to Japan, into the mountains. I followed him. A year later I finally found him, deeply in the mountains. He couldn´t tell me much, but he could tell me something about an organisation which is called "The Serpent´s Tale". And I bet Dragon´s master is in this organisation..."

"Why didn´t you tell us?", asked Hawk.

"I had no time. And in that mountains I couldn´t phone you...I spent three years there, then I came back coz it all had no sense. The monch couldn´t tell me more. So I came so far for nothing", finished Axel. "I´m so sorry I left you guys here just to find nothing..."

"Hey, now you´re back", smiled Lioness. Axel smiled weakly back. He knew Lioness was still a little angry about his disappearance some years ago. She looked at her watch and seemed to be shocked.

"It´s five after six", she just said and swallowed dryly. Everyone else got nervous, too. Exept Axel. Again he was confused.

"What´s wrong? Five after six is a normal time", he said and looked at his friends who began to walk into different directions.

"But not for us. It´s too late."

Axel rose an eyebrow and was even more confused than he had been some minutes ago. Lioness sighed and explained, "Tilian. He comes back every evening, at exactly six o'clock. Since three years. He had been too late only one time, and then he was nearly caught by other cops. We had to change his identy completely and Garrett had to change the ID on his arm..."

"You mean something could have happened to him?", asked Axel.

"Right, I´m afraid something serious takes him so long", she mumbered and climbed a ladder which led her to a platform nearly two metres over the ground. From that platform went a footbridge along the walls. On the wall in opposite of the ladder was another platform with a ladder, the footbridge ended there. And there was also a door. Lioness had climbed the ladder.

She went along the footbridge to the door on the other side, very quickly. Then she disappeared in the door. Axel looked at her till she went through the door. Suddenly there was a noise and someone ran into the room, locking the security door tightly. Breathless he leaned his back against the door and sank to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

"Tilian!" Garrett rolled over to the breathless clone who sat on the ground, panting hardly. "What happened?"

"They...nearly...discovered my identy", he replied and stood up, with shaking legs. Garrett helped him over to a couch where he sat down. Axel came over to them and rose an eyebrow. Tilian smiled as he saw Axel. "So you made it?"

"Yeah...tell me, what happened?"

"Like I said, they nearly discovered my identy. Some scanners found me on the way to this place...Luckily I didn´t wear my uniform, otherwise they would have noticed that I was a spy. No, they couldn´t see my face, too. I could manage to get rid of them in some small lanes. And after that I burned the coat and the hat I wore to make sure they won´t recognize the clothes."

The others came back into the room, alarmed. As they recognized Tilian on the couch they just breathed out relieved. Lioness hugged the clone, happy to see him again. He just let it happen. Axel was really surprised about this. Lioness noticed his look and just smiled.

"I told to the patrols outside. They say that Lee sends more and more scanners through the city. Life here is getting more dangerous with each second", said King.

"Patrols?", asked Axel.

Hawk nodded. "They sneak through the city every evening. To have a look at what happens out there. Tilian is a great help for us, but he doesn´t find out everything Lee plans."

"Well, the patrols don´t, too. But they check the situation on the streets while Tilian checks the situation in the security", explained Lioness.

"Aha", replied Axel just. Slowly he got used to the situation he was in. And slowly he understood everything. Nevertheless he was still confused.

Someone came in, jumping off the footbridge on the walls over the teens and landed next to them. It was a ninja with white clothes and a black dragon on his chest. He stood up and looked at Garrett, nodding.

"I checked the southern streets. More scanners than before are around", he said simply and was about to put off his mask.

"Dragon?", asked Axel unsecure.

The ninja nodded and put off his mask. "Greetings, Axel Manning. Long time no see", he said and smiled. The other teens just moaned. Why had the ninja put off his mask? Axel now just stared at him, with widened eyes as he saw who stood in front of him. Slowly tears came into his eyes and made his view blurry.

"Dad?" He hugged the ninja tightly and didn´t want to let him go. Dragon was a bit confused about this, but as he looked at the others he understood. And he understood his mistake. At once he regretted this. Lioness placed her hand on Axel´s shoulder and pulled him back. He looked at her, wiping the tears out of his face. She just shook her head.

"He isn´t it", she said simply.

"What are you talking about?"

"I´m not your father", said Dragon. Axel looked at him again, really confused. He wiped the tears out of his face.

"But..."

"No, he isn´t it", agreed Garrett. "He´s your father´s clone."

"His...clone?"

"Yes. I´m one of Lee´s clones. He created me while the Chrysalis Project. Believe me, I´m so sorry about this..." The ninja looked away. Axel didn´t understand.

"Why?"

"The Chrysalis Project dealed with cloning a super soldier. Your father was security agent while the project, Lee used his DNA to create Dragon", explained Garrett and looked at Dragon who spoke up again,

"My master found me, fourteen years ago, after your father disappeared. First we thought I was the real Sebastian Manning, but we found the files of the project. They say that every clone has a tatoo on his chest. And as you see..." He showed Axel the tattoo on his chest, looking sad at him. "We found out that Lee worked for my master. After you disappeared Lee could create more clones, and finally enough to beat my master..."

"So Dragon stayed with us", said Shark. "And this ninja dude is totally cool."

"Your...master?", asked Axel slowly and carefully, swallowing very dry.

"Yes. He´s the head of the Serpent´s Tale. But meanwhile he´s in the high security prison of Lee", said Dragon.

Axel´s eyes widened. "The Serpent´s Tale? Your master is the head of this organisation?!"

"Yes."

"Then I bet your master knows about what happened to my dad! The monch in Japan told me about it!"

"What are you planning? Walking into that prison to ask the dude what happened to your father?", asked Shark. "Dude, we have more important problems than finding your father. If Lee gets more powerful than he is now he will be unstoppable!"

"If you don´t want to help me I´ll go alone", said Axel seriously.

"I´ll come with you", said Tilian and stood up. Axel was confused about this, but smiled.

"And I will, too", agreed Lioness.

"You can count on me", said Dragon and bowed to Axel. "That´s the least I can do."

**And here is the second chapter! Hope you like this story, I'm gonna upload more soon! **


	3. Break In

Break in

"But guys, we cannot risk your life! For what? Maybe that master tells you your father is dead and then you went that far for nothing", interrupted King.

"I´m sorry to tell you, but you´re wrong. Breaking into that prison is a great idea", said Garrett seriously. King looked offended away. Garrett just smirked and continued, "If you can manage to break into that prison we could hurt Lee´s security system a lot. After bringing out Dragon´s master you guys could free all the other prisoners and then blow it up. Lee won´t think of this attack."

"Awesome!", grinned Lioness.

"I heard there are a lot of guards in the prison, high security level you can´t pass", mentioned Tilian thoughtful. "Believe me, it´s impossible to get in there."

"Don´t tell me what´s impossible and what not", grinned Axel. Then he cleared his throat. "Garrett, can you get a plan of the prison?"

"On it", he replied shortly and typed into the computer. Meanwhile Axel turned to Tilian, Lioness and Dragon. He smiled at them, thankfully for their help.

"Thanks that you´re helping me...", he began. And looked at Tilian. "I still can´t believe you´re on our side...but thank you, too." The clone just smiled and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"No big. I´ll do everything in my power to stop Lee, even if it costs me my own life."

"The same for me", agreed Lioness, placing her hand on Tilian´s shoulder. Dragon nodded in agreement, too.

"It´s an honour for me to help the son of Sebastian Manning", he said and bowed to Axel again. Garrett could finally find a map of the prison. He rolled with his wheelchair over to the rest of the team and put the map onto a table. Everyone stood now around this table and looked at the map. Axel stared at it deeply in thoughts for a long time. His friends looked at him, expecting a plan.

"What is that?", he asked and pointed at something next to the mainbuilding.

Garrett looked at it. "A very old pipeline. You should know this prison stands on a cliff near the sea, here you have some photos." Garrett gave him the photos and Axel looked at them. Again for a long time.

"Alright, what if we go over that cliffs? As far as I can see there are no security guards or something. Then we could reach that pipeline and sneak into the prison without being seen."

"The pipeline is not reasonless closed. People say under that prison happen even more cruel things than in the mainbuildings...", mentioned Hawk.

"No prob, we´ll get in. And...you guys don´t want to come with us?", asked Axel and looked at Shark, King and Hawk. They all shook their heads.

"Too dangerous, dude. They won´t notice four dudes climbing that cliffs, but seven?" Shark shook his head. "You should better go alone."

"He´s right. But I think you´ll make it", smiled King and tried to encourage the four in front of him.

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They decided to break in the next night. This evening everyone was too tired to do anything. Axel went into the room Lioness showed him and laid on the bed, soon he fell asleep. Lioness was awake till after midnight. She had stayed with Garrett, Tilian and King in front of the computers to hack into some supervision cameras. They wanted to check out the situation around the prison.

"Looks quite silent", said Lioness yawning. "But I guess there´s hiding more."

"There are a lot of guards, using only high technology weapons, the best Lee ever produced. They wear thick armours and so on. Nearly impossible to knock them out", said Tilian. Even he was tired and yawned slightly.

"We should sleep now", suggested King. "I cannot stay awake any longer. Sorry guys."

"No big, we all need sleep", agreed Garrett and turned off the computers. He and King already left, but Tilian walked over to the map of the prison and looked at it. Absent-minded he studied the plan and thought about any idea for their escape if they would be seen while their mission.

Lioness came over to him and looked over his shoulder at the plan.

"You´re worried, aren´t you?", she asked quietly and looked into his face. He just nodded slightly, still looking at the map. In the last years Lioness had gotten to know the clone much better, meanwhile he was her best friend. After Axel´s disappearance she had been the first one Tilian had come to. And she trusted him a lot. In case she´d intrust him with her life. Some years ago this would have been a crazy idea, nearly suicide. But meanwhile...

Lioness placed her hand on his shoulder. "You should go to bed now, too. We need you tomorrow night as well", she smirked. He didn´t reply but smiled. As he looked straightly into her eyes she suddenly felt a warmth in her stomach and a slight prickle. For a long moment she nearly stared into his red reptile eyes until he smiled and walked past her.

"Good night", he said and climbed the ladder, walking through the door and into his room. Lioness followed him some moments later and walked into her room.

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The next day in the evening the four got prepared for their break in. Tilian wore a darkgreen jumpsuit, similiar to the one Axel knew. Axel himself got a new jumpsuit, black and orange colored. Lioness wore her old green one. Before they left Garrett had a surprise for them.

"Alright guys. Here are your weapons. The newest versions of the Tagblasters in a special design, only for you", he began and gave Tilian, Axel and Lioness the blasters. Then he turned to Dragon. "You told me that ninjas don´t use those weapons. So I have something special for you", grinned Garrett and gave Dragon a small bundle.

The ninja opened it and found shuriken in it. The small throwing stars were golden and looked very sharp. Garrett grinned brightly. "They are made up of a special metal. Theoretically it can slide nearly through everything. And they fly without any problems."

Dragon tied the bundle to his belt. Garrett continued, "Now I have something else. First, this ones. The canisters are filled with a special gas. If you throw them on the ground hardly they´ll spring open and set the gas free. Or you push this buttons at the same time, here on the shaft. Then you can roll it for example and after five seconds the gas will be set free. Useful to knock out guards."

He gave them small canisters, not bigger than a finger. Everyone got seven of them. "At last this. You can stick this bombs to walls or simply lay them on the ground. Important is that you set the countdown mode only on your way back. Then you have sixty seconds to get out. But this won´t be a prob. You just place the bombs, then get out and use this remote control to set them. Understood?"

"Yes", replied Lioness and took some of the bombs which were flat and as big as a **Handteller**.

After they had their weapons Garrett talked to them about the last details. Then the four went out of the building and onto the street. "We should take the canalisation until we reach the coastline. Then we can climb the cliffs", suggested Tilian. Everyone agreed, so they went down and were soon in the canalisation. Surely Dragon led them through the tunnel system.

"I really don´t want to know why you know this way", said Axel quietly as he followed the ninja. "By the way, doesn´t any patrol guard the canalisation?"

"Not really. It has a reason why no one hides here", replied Lioness. "Exept some of us. They live here a long time and now all the dangers. But no patrols are here. The real danger are the scanners. But they just fly here one time a month."

"Alright, we´re there", said Dragon and climbed out of a tunnel, they were on a street again. Quickly he led them over to a small wall. From behind the wall they could look straightly at the sea, behind them laid the last and half destroyed houses of the city. And some metres in front of them began the cliffs. The sea rushed hardly and louldy, just like thunder.

Meanwhile the sky was completely dark, thick clouds were everywhere. This night was cold and stormy, the wind blew over the city and roared. The four of them began to climb down the cliffs. Slowly Tilian searched a way down the stones, he could see better in the darkness. Lioness followed him, close behind her was Axel and Dragon was the last one.

The cliffs were very high, one wrong step and they´d fall into their sure death. One time Lioness slipped off the wet stones and fell, but Axel could grab her hand just in time. After she calmed down of the shock they continued, this time more carefully than before.

Finally they reached the beach. Close to the rocks they sneaked along the cliffs until they stood under the prison. Luckily the searchlight didn´t notice them, so they reached the cliffs without being seen.

Dragon had a rope. "Now comes the difficult part", he said. "I´ll climb the cliffs and throw the rope to you when I reached the pipeline." He jumped and quickly he climbed the cliffs. Axel was amazed how easy the ninja could move and how great his agility was. In the darkness he disappeared and the two teens and the clone stood alone in the night.

But then something long landed on the ground next to them. It was the rope. Dragon gave them a signal and they climbed the cliffs with the rope. Axel was the first one. He climbed the steeply cliffs until he stood on a very small plataeu next to Dragon. Tilian followed him and helped Lioness up who came last. Thankful she smiled at the clone who just nodded.

The end of the pipeline laid right in front of them. It was open, only some metal bars should prevent things from coming in. Or out. Dragon pulled his sword out of its scabbard on his back and cut the bars easily. They went in. Tilian led them again, there was not much light in this pipeline and they didn´t want to use flashlights, they were too afraid to be seen.

After a long time of sneaking through the dark tunnel the group reached the end of the pipeline. Tilian climbed out of it, but signalized his teammates to stay in the tunnel. They did. Slowly the clone looked around in the large room he was in. There were just some other pipelines, some of them began in the room, others went through it. Valves were on some of them, but no guards or soldiers were in here.

Tilian found an airingshaftand grinned. He told the others to follow him and crept into the shaft. The small team followed him. Sometimes when the shaft went into two or three different directions he stopped, listened carefully and even tried to catch a smell in the air.

"We have to find the main-computer. There are all files about the prisoners in here. So we can find out where Dragon´s master is", whispered Axel. Tilian nodded and listened again. Then he chose a new shaft and the others followed him.

This way they found an end of the shaft. Through an iron grating they saw a large room, filled with computers and machines. Two guards, both looking like Tilian, were in there and checked the supervision cameras.

"And now?", asked Lioness.

"Wait here", whispered Dragon and disappeared in the darkness of the shaft. Before anyone could say something against it he was gone. Suddenly the light turned out for part a second, as it was turned on again the three in the shaft saw Dragon standing in the computer room, both guards laid knocked out on the ground. He nodded to them and they crept out of the shaft.

Lioness went over to the computer and typed something in. "Let´s see where we have the files about Quang", she mumbered and searched the cell of Dragon´s master Quang.

"I can open his cell from here, then it won´t make any alarm. But his cell is far away from here, they´ll notice it before we can escape with him", she said and turned to the guys behind her.

"We should split up", suggested Axel. "Two of us go to Quang and fetch him, when we´re there you open every cell in this prison. Then we place the bombs on our way back and meet again when we reach the pipeline."

"Alright, you and Dragon free Quang while we stay here and wait for you to tell us when we shall open the cells", said Lioness. "Good luck."

The ninja and Axel nodded and disappeared in the shaft again.

"What are we doing if some guards notice us?", asked Tilian, looking through a window in the room. Through this window he looked at the corridor. Lioness just walked over to the knocked out guards and knelt down next to one of them. Then she put off his helmet.

"Maybe we should have a small costume party", she grinned and put on the helmet. Tilian understood and grinned too. Quickly he put on the uniform of a guard while Lioness threw the guards into a locker. Then she put on the uniform, too.

"You look great in it", smirked the clone as he saw that the uniform was too big for Lioness. She just smiled jokingly back and walked over to the computers again.

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Soon Axel and Dragon reached Quang´s cell. Lioness saw them on the supervision cameras and opened the cells. On the screens she saw that a tall chinese man with white hair and an old face coming out of the cell. Dragon talked shortly to him, then the three ran down the corridors. Lioness nodded to Tilian and the two went out of the computer room.

With the bag of bombs in their hands they ran down the corridor back to the room with the pipeline. On their way they stuck the bombs to walls. Fortunately they didn´t meet any guard. But then suddenly alarm appeared. Behind them they heard quick steps, guards ran after them and began to shoot.

"Time to test Garrett´s new toy", smirked Lioness and threw something behind her. Five seconds later a big yellow cloud appeared. The guards who followed them inhaled the gas and fainted.

"Nice", grinned Tilian and continued running while sticking the bombs to walls.

As they arrived at the pipeline they met Dragon, Axel and Quang there.

"We knocked out the guards with the gas. They will sleep for a long time. The other prisoners run out of the mainentrance, this will get the attention of the other guards outside", said Axel.

"Let´s set the bombs and get outta here", suggested Lioness. Axel nodded and searched the remote control. As he couldn´t find it panic came up in him. "But...it was here!" He searched in every pocket but couldn´t find it.

"You mean you lost it?!" Everyone was now uncalm.

"Get outta here, I´ll set the bombs", said Tilian seriously and turned around.

"Wait, you can´t set the bombs! They´ll explode before you could set all of them!", said Lioness, holding him back.

"No, I´ll activate some bombs on my way, not all of them. When one bomb close to another one explodes the other one does, too. And sixty seconds are enough for me to get outta here. We´ll meet on the shore!" The clone ran through the door.

"Tilian!" Before Lioness could hold him back Axel grabbed her hand and pulled her into the pipeline.

As fast as they could the four ran through the pipeline, down the cliffs and were finally on the shore again. There they waited for Tilian. While the three men sat down and caught their breaths Lioness stood in front of the rocks and looked up at the prison. She so hoped Tilian would make it.

But then there was a big explosion, one after one the bombs exploded and the prison began to burn. The annoying sound of the alarm disappeared and the sound of the explosion echoed in the night. The flames came even through the pipeline. Lioness sank shocked to her knees and stared at the inferno. Why did Tilian stay in that prison? Why didn´t they just leave without blowing up the prison? Why...?

She didn´t want to cry. Lioness closed her eyes and slowly some tears ran down her cheeks, fell and landed gently on the sand of the shore. As she felt a hand on her shoulder she didn´t even look up. Axel knelt next to her and tried to comfort her.

"Come on Li, let´s go home", he whispered and helped her standing up. "I´m so sorry for you..."

Suddenly they heard a cough and whirled around.

**Hm...who coughed there?... Hope you like this chapter, next one coming soon!**


	4. The Serpent

The Serpent

Lioness looked shocked but heavily relieved. She ran towards Tilian who was full of ash and dust. Happily she fell around his neck. The clone was too weak to stand on his legs and fell on his back. Lioness landed on him, still hugging him happily. She was that relieved that she pressed her lips on his for part a second, then she hugged him again. Tilian just let it happen, but smiled after her short kiss.

"Don´t do this again", whispered Lioness.

"Actually I didn´t plan to see nearly my death another time", he replied and struggled to stand up. With Lioness' help he could manage to stand on his feet. Axel just watched the two with a strange feeling in his belly. Lioness really fell for Tilian? They were very good friends, yes, but maybe Lioness had more feelings...? Axel threw this thought away and shook his head.

Fortunately he hadn´t seen the kiss.

"We should go away from here before the guards see us", said Axel quickly.

"Master", said Dragon and bowed to Quang. "I´m glad to see you again without any injuries. You missed a lot of the happenings while being in that prison."

Quang just nodded. "We should talk later."

Everyone agreed and Dragon helped Tilian to walk, just like Lioness.

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The happenings in the prison were counted as a signal of the rebels, that they started their offensive attack. The "government" sent out more flying cameras to find out where rebels hid and to prevent other attacks against the president. More guards were on the streets every day, and not even one night passed without that helicopters with searchlights flew over the city.

The city was like a nest of ants in panic. All the citizens were not allowed to go on the streets exept for two hours in the afternoon, between 15 and 17 o'clock. Who stayed out before or after this time limit was arrested at once and sent to a secret high security prison. Not anyone knew where this prison was. The life was now even harder for the rebels.

They hid all the time, and the ones who were brave enough to leave the hiding places came rarely back. Everyone was in fear. Moreover the clone police, called CP, searched in the canalisation for other hiding places of the last free people. It was horrible.

And with a new strategy the CP seemed to try to get the rebels and to supervise the citizens easier. They built barriers on the streets. If anyone wanted to go through them he had to pass a high security check with an ID check and so on. It was impossible to get unknown through that barriers. Soon there were so many barriers that it was impossible for the rebels to move over the ground.

In the underground the situation got worse, too. The CP tried to drive the rebels into the center of the city where Lee´s tower was. In a circle around the city they blew up the parts of the canalisation and the houses where no one lived. The dirt was carried away and Lee began to build new buildings. Slowly he eleminated the old city and built a new one.

Slowly the CP´s circle around the center of the city turned smaller. Everything in the circle was still the old, but everything outside the circle was blown up and destroyed for building the "New City". And getting out of this circle was impossible. Because of the explosions in the canalisation the tunnels were blockated, no one could get out. Not under the ground, not over the ground. They were trapped.

This was the aim of the CP. To get a control over the citizens. The ones who lived in the parts of the city that were about to be blown up were put into buildings closer to the center of the city. And one time a week they controlled the flats of the citizens to make sure none of them worked together with the rebels.

Panic and fear was a permanent fellow of every citizen and rebel.

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"Station 19? Station 19? Can you hear me? Station 12 here! Hello?!" King tried to get contact to station 19 since some hours. But he got no answer exept the permanent cracking sound of the radio set. He gave up and tried to contact another station. Garrett had watched all this and understood. The rest of the teens sat on the couch, deeply in thoughts.

"Guys, station 19 is lost. As far as I know this station lays out of the CP-circle. We´re lucky that we´re that close to the railway station, they won´t blow it up in the next months coz they need the trains."

Quang sat in a corner of the room and meditated, Dragon sat on the couch too, staring at the ground. This time he didn´t wear his mask and everyone could see the worry in his face. Axel sat next to him, staring at the ground as well with empty eyes. Just like his friends. Lioness sat next to him and to Tilian. Shark and Hawk were on the other couch, deeply in thoughts staring at the wall.

Everyone´s face looked tired and it was obvious that no one had a hope to ever get free again.

"I...I can´t believe that this all happens", whispered Lioness, tears came into her eyes. All the happenings were too much for her. Silently her tears fell onto the ground and she closed her eyes. She leaned her head against Tilian´s shoulder and cried quietly. Slowly he wrapped his arm around her and tried to comfort her a little. Axel looked at them and Tilian just looked at him hatefully.

"This is all your fault", he hissed angry.

"My fault?!" Axel stood up furiously. Tilian just nodded.

"If you had stayed here your team would have destroyed Lee´s plans. And we all wouldn´t be here trying so hard to stop him." The clone stayed calm, but the hate in his voice was obvious.

Axel´s face turned red and his muscles strained. "Then we would have destroyed you and your team too!"

"Better than being here without any chance of a future", replied Tilian coldly.

"You´re not the only one who´s sitting here, thinking about our hopeless situation! And now you´re blaming me for this?! I´m one of you as well, I want to cry as well as you want, but I can´t. I´m afraid as well as you, I´m full of fear as well as you are. But..." Axel paused, swallowing his tears of anger. Somehow their current situation did something to his mind, it nearly drove him crazy.

Tilian let Lioness go and stood up, looking angry into Axel´s face. Axel himself was now calm again, he fought so hard with his tears of desperation.

"But what?", asked Tilian as Axel said nothing.

"But I´m back now and I want freedom as well as you want", said Axel quietly. "And I´ll fight for it, even though our chances to win are like nothing. I´ll fight for it, even if I may die."

Tilian stared at Axel for a long time, both said nothing and just looked at each other. Silence was in the room, only disturbed by the cracking sound of the radio set. Then Tilian sighed and closed his eyes.

"As much as I hate to say, but I feel the same way. You don´t know how much four years of living with this permanent fear changes your mind, your attitude to everything. And your character. I...I feel feelings I have never thought of. Desperation and this feeling of being hopeless lost for example. When I think of that I was created to be one of Lee´s marionettes now, to be one of the CP to improve this world..."

Tilian paused.

"I don´t want to improve the world this way. This so called _improvement _kills unguilty citizens, arrests them and destroys everyones life just to make this world _better_. I was created to be one of them, to cause all this pain to the people...to destroy lives, _your_ life...I completely changed, everyone here can tell you this. And I´ll tell you one thing", said Tilian and swallowed.

"I´ll fight with you. I´ll risk my life if necessary to rescue all of you here. Coz I know you´d do the same for me. Coz I know you´re my friends, and it´s worth fighting for you all. Axel, I´ll fight with you for everything that means something to me", he said seriously and looked at Axel.

"You´ve never called me with my first name", noticed Axel emotionless.

Tilian nodded. "But I do now. I honestly respect you like everyone else here."

They stared again for a long time at each other. Then Axel suddenly embraced Tilian tightly and closed his eyes, glad to have a true friend on his side. "Thanks", he just whispered. To his surprise Tilian hugged him back, but let him soon go.

"Never thought I´d say this, but I´m glad you´re here", smiled the clone.

"Have you seen what I´ve seen?", asked Hawk still staring at the two.

"Yeah, dude, seems like a weird dream..."

"I wish it was", said Lioness, wiping the tears out of her face. "Then we wouldn´t suffer all this pain and see all those cruel things."

"Now, what about Quang? He didn´t talk since he arrived here. And now he sits in that corner for nearly two days", noticed King and looked at Dragon´s master. Then Quang stood up and walked over to them. He smiled brightly. But no one could say if it was an evil or a good smile.

"You´re the head of the Serpent´s Tale?", asked Axel distrustful and looked at the chinese man who nodded, but said nothing.

"And you knew my father? What really happened to him?"

Again Quang nodded. "I could tell you, but I won´t. Not before I didn´t get my revenge on Lee. He betrayed me as well as he betrayed your father. So he will have the missing answers you search, young Manning", he said.

"What about a deal", suggested Axel. "We will help you to get your revenge on Lee, then you tell me what really happened to my father. If he´s alive, and if yes, where he is. Deal?"

Quang hesitated but agreed finally. "You´re very wise for your age, young Manning. Wisedom is a good quality."

"Okay, stop this **Glückskeks-**talking. Let´s talk about what to do next", interrupted Tilian and sat down again, just like Axel.

"Maybe we should attack Lee´s base not offensive. They have too strong weapons and we´re not enough people to beat him. We´ll all die if we try this", said King and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Maybe I can do something", grinned Quang and clapped his hands. Suddenly more than thirty ninjas appeared out of nowhere, darkclothed warriors with lances and swords stood in the hall and expected Quang´s orders.

Surprised everyone stared at them. "Why...where did they come from?!", asked Hawk and stood up to look at the warriors who didn´t move and just looked at Quang. Who grinned brightly.

"As you freed me you freed them, too. They follow me all the time coz I told them to do so. And they´ll fight with us, of course..." Quang nodded and one of the ninjas came towards him. This one looked a bit different, on the chest of his dark uniform was the small chinese symbol of "tiger". The ninja bowed to his master and Quang told him to wait with the other ninjas till he called them.

The ninja nodded and turned to the others. Soon they were gone again.

"Alright. When we call all of us together we´ll be maybe...one or twohundred", guessed King.

"Way too less dudes", realized Shark. "They have better weapons, better armours, better defension...Impossible."

"But we can try. And we shall not lose our hope, that´s most important", said Axel seriously.

"We should make a plan first, then we contact the other remaining stations. If we all work together we could beat Lee", said Hawk. The others agreed.

"And whatever may expect us", said Lioness and stood up. "We´ll stay together."

**K, dudes and dudettes, thanks for the reviews! And sorry, I made a mistake in the chapter before...I wrote MONCHS, but of course it was supposed to mean MONKS... Thanks, ladychriz, for telling me:) **


	5. Only Hope Is Left

Only Hope is left

The next week was the hardest one ever. Garrett and King sat the whole day in front of the computers, trying to hack into Lee´s system. Meanwhile Hawk, Lioness and Dragon studied old maps and plans of Lee´s tower. Quang was in his room, no one saw him for days. He only came out for eating dinner. Axel and Tilian were the busiest of all of them.

They were checking and repairing weapons, talking about strategies, training together sometimes and even sneaked out on the streets to check the situation. They became a great team and were all the time busy doing their jobs. Shark contacted different stations all the time or helped Dragon, Hawk and Lioness.

In the end of the week it was a normal busy evening. Nearly late night. Garrett was hacking into Lee´s system, failing because of the heavily encrypted codes and passwords. King made some coffee for all of them. So they could stay awake for a longer time to keep on their work. Around the table in the "kitchen" sat Dragon, Hawk and Lioness. The kitchen was in one corner of this large room.

Station number 12 was made up of one large hall with the kitchen, the computer area and the living area with the couches and a small table. The kitchen was so just in one corner of the hall, some cupboards, a fridge and everything else you´d normally find in a kitchen was there.

Dragon pointed at a line on a map and frowned. "What is this?", he asked. Hawk and Lioness looked at it.

"Seems to be a gate or something", guessed Lioness. "If yes we have no chance to get through this. Most of that large gates are heavily guarded."

"And through the air?", asked Hawk.

"Nope. Seen that pics of the supervision cameras? Lee´s tower has a lot of laser cannons on the roof and all along the building. If you try to attack from above they´ll shoot you like a bird."

Hawk growled something and the three concentrated again on the map, trying to find any way to get into the tower without being seen. Lioness looked at Shark who sat in front of the radio set and tried to contact station 17. In vain. He tried every station until he got a signal from station 14. Relieved he asked them about the situation overthere. They told him that station 17 laid out of the CP circle around the city-center. They were lost as well.

Some of them came to other stations closer to the center. Most of them fleed to station 9 which was close to the mall. The others went to different stations or even got arrested on their way.

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"Alright, we have one try. If the scanners find us...I don´t want to think about it", whispered Axel and stopped in front of the door which led to the roof of the house under which their hiding place was. Tilian stood next to him, ready to run, just like Axel.

"Ready?", he asked.

Axel nodded. "Go!"

Both opened the door quickly, ran out of it and towards the edge of the roof. Surely they jumped off the roof and landed on a small balcony. Quickly they ducked behind some flower pots which stood there and gave someone on the balcony on the house in opposite of them a signal. He let a bridge down so that the two balconies were connected.

As fast as they could Axel and Tilian ran over that footbridge and onto the other side. The man there told them the way and the two continued running. They ran into the house, down the stairs and into the inner ward. Suddenly there was a loud noise and suddenly searchlights turned on.

"Scanners!", screamed Tilian.

"Plan D!", ordered Axel. Tilian understood at once and both ran into different directions. It was only one scanner, a flying camera which used searchlights to find rebels. This scanner followed Axel who ran across the inner ward and towards a wall. The scanner followed him closely. Axel ran up the wall, turned a backflip and landed behind the camera.

Confused about this the camera turned around and before it could fly away suddenly Tilian kicked it that hard that it crashed into a wall and fell onto the ground, making some last sounds before it died.

"Oh yeah!", smirked Axel and gave his clone a high five.

"Let´s continue before more of them come along", said the clone and a second later the two ran across the inner ward and into another house. There they ran downstairs, through long hallways and finally they reached the cellar. Here waited a small group of three rebels for them.

"Take this backpacks, there are some of the new Tagblasters, smoke bombs and machine guns", said one of the rebels and gave Axel three backpacks, Tilian got three as well.

"Station 15 ordered two backpacks, station 12 gets two as well and the last two gets station 4. Good luck", said another rebel and showed the two another way out. On the street Axel and Tilian hid in a small and dark lane to discuss one last time their plan.

"Okay, last comes station 12. We´ll go to station 15 first, they´re closer. Let´s hope no CP sees us", said Axel quietly.

"And what if?", asked Tilian jokingly.

"Let´s try not to die that fast", grinned Axel and went down the lane. He climbed a ladder which led him to a footbridge that went along the wall. At the end of this footbridge was a window. He climbed through it and was in an empty room now. Tilian followed him. Slowly the two sneaked through some other empty rooms until they reached the hallway.

Suddenly there were loud knocks on another door in that corridor. Axel looked carefully out of the door and could see some CP´s in their darkblue uniforms. Quietly he closed and locked the door again, his heart beating faster. Tilian understood.

"We have two things to choose. We can try to avoid them by climbing on the outiside wall with the risk that another scanner may see us or we knock out that guys and simply run over them with the risk they may kill us", whispered Axel.

"The outside wall", chose Tilian. Axel nodded and they climbed out of a window. Just in time. As they hung on the wall outisde the CP came into the room and checked everything. A little relieved the two of them climbed down the wall and soon they were in the house again, but this time in the basement. To their left were the stairs, to their right a collapsed corridor.

Axel smirked and found the small way through that destroyed corridor. This was only a fake. The wall of rubble in front of them was not even a metre thick. And there was a small hole in it so that they could creep through it. Behind that faked wall they were in safe again. For at least half an hour. From here led them an underground way to station 15.

"Glad we made it", said Axel after a while. Here they could talk, none would hear them until they reached the end of the corridor. And it was far away.

"Not yet. We have to visit station 4 too", remembered Tilian. "And that´s the difficult part."

Axel glanced at his clone and studied his face. It showed no emotion, not even one single. Every stone had more emotion in his face.

He sighed. "She loves you, doesn´t she?", asked Axel after a while of silence and got a confused face of Tilian.

"What do you mean?"

"Lioness. She...she really loves you", said Axel quietly and looked at the ground while they walked down the dark corridor. Only sometimes there was a weak light on the walls to their right and left.

"I know", replied Tilian, not even looking at Axel. Axel himself was surprised.

"You know about it?"

"I´m not silly. Of course I know she loves me. And I got really sure when she kissed me after our action in the prison", he said.

Axel rose an eyebrow. "She kissed you?" Actually he couldn´t imagine Lioness kissing Tilian.

"Nothing like you mean. She just gave me a short kiss on my lips and finished. Nothing more", answered the clone. As he looked into Axel´s face he suddenly understood. And sighed. "After you were gone you know your team broke up...I went for Lioness first coz I knew the team meant everything to her. She would be the first one who´d bring the team together again."

"And?"

"We could bring the team together again as you know. But she never got really over what happened before. That you left without saying anything. Not even telling _her_ about it. Quickly she began to trust me more than the others, she told me everything. About her feelings, her secrets...things I guess she would have told you if you had been there. We understood each other very well and became kinda best friends."

Axel said nothing and listened. After a pause Tilian continued.

"In truth...I don´t have more feelings for her. She´s the one who fell for me, I didn´t fall for her. She´s my best friend, the only one of who I believe I can trust her. But I´m afraid she´ll expect more of me..."

Axel kept quiet. He thought about Tilian´s words.

"You don´t know how hard that is. I don´t love her, she´s my best friend. But I don´t want to hurt her. I don´t want to cause her pain. All this happenings now are too much for her, I don´t want her to suffer more pain", said the clone and looked at the ground.

"I bet she wouldn´t have told me all the things she told you. She loves you, trusts you. She was sure you´d never tell anyone else", said Axel.

Tilian laughed shortly after some time of silence. Axel was confused about this and looked at him, frowning. Tilian smirked at him.

"One time she told me that she was in love with _you_", he said. "And that she´d never fall for another guy. And now she seems to love me."

"Woah, wait, hold line! Lioness loved _me_?"

"Yes, she honestly did. And I bet she still does. She just needed one to trust in all this years and chose me. Maybe those feelings for me are just her imagination, her wish to have you back..."

"But now I´m here", said Axel.

"Yeah, but too late. She forgot her feelings for you in all this years and focused them on me, unfortunately...Listen, I don´t want to break her heart, but I have to if she doesn´t realize on her own that I don´t love her and-"

He stopped and told Axel to be quiet. The end of the tunnel was close in front of them, but Tilian got distrustful to this silence. He listened carefully like an animal, hissed quietly like a snake to catch a smell in the air. Then he continued walking.

"Thought something was there...", he mumbered but shook his head.

"Sure?", asked Axel and listened, too. "Maybe some CP around. The tunnel is nearly ending."

Tilian shook his head and walked slowly towards the door at the end of the tunnel. Quietly he opened it and went through the doorway. The two were in another corridor of a house. The clone looked carefully around, then he sneaked down the corridor and tried to open the other door at the end of it. But it was tightly locked. He cursed quietly hissing and growled angry.

"Locked. I bet there is a CP lock on the other side of the door. If we try to break it open it will explode", guessed Axel. Tilian nodded in agreement.

"Any other way?", asked the clone.

Axel thought for a moment. Then he got an idea. "We could get upstairs and through a window...this room behind the door just connects this house with the one next to it. So we just have to go over the street for five metres, not more."

Tilian rose an eyebrow. "You really think that will work? You know there are too much CP patrols around..."

"Afraid?", asked Axel challenging.

"I just wanted to ask you the same and didn´t want you to get in danger", replied Tilian jokingly. He walked past Axel and upstairs. There he listened carefully to try to hear any enemy in the darkness. But as there was no sound or noise around he continued sneaking through the corridor and towards the main entrance. Axel followed him closely. He looked out of the door and at the streets. None seemed to be there.

"Let´s go", whispered Tilian and Axel followed him out of the house. As fast as they could they ran towards the next house. After they got into it they were in safe again and soon they reached station number 15. The next station was easier to reach.

"You should be careful out there", said one man as Axel and Tilian were about to leave station four. "We´re very close to the center. Here are more patrols and CP´s than around your station...be careful, guys, and good luck."

"Thanks, but don´t worry", said Axel smiling.

"We´ve stayed through worse", agreed Tilian. "And no CP will stop us now."

They sneaked out of a door and were on the streets again. They ran across the street, everyone a backpack on his back, and into a dark lane. "We could take a shortcut back to our station", suggested Tilian. "Garrett showed me how to hack into the system of the CP."

"What are you going to do?"

"I could try to hack into the computer of the street barrier overthere to open the gate in it. Without passing the security controls of course."

"But there are a lot of policemen. They will notice us at once. And I´ve seen snipers on the roofs, too. Fortunately they haven´t seen us yet", said Axel frowning. "I don´t trust this. We should take the old route."

"You don´t trust me, do you?"

"It has nothing to do with you...I´m just afraid they´ll catch us." Axel looked around the corner and saw the five or seven of the CP walking around the barrier. Two were in front of it and maybe three or five on it. "It´s too dangerous."

Tilian mumbered something but agreed finally. They walked down the lane, always watching their backs to make sure no CP searched in that lane. The lane led them to an inner ward of a house. Suddenly there was a loud noise and something flew towards the two. At once they whirled around.

"Scanner!", yelled Axel, running backwards. As he turned around to open the door on the other side of the inner ward he noticed it was locked. Tilian ran over to him and tried to open the door, but not even together they could manage to open it. He cursed hissing and turned around to face three scanners. The flying cameras with searchlights floated in front of the two, making quiet, clicking sounds.

Axel and Tilian held their hands in front of their eyes coz the light of the scanners blinded them. Suddenly the entrance to the lane where they had come from was blockated by CP´s who ran towards the two, stopping in the entrance and pointed with their guns at them. On the roofs above snipers and more CP´s appeared, aiming at the two rebels.

"Guess it´s over now", said Axel as they rose their hands to surrender.

"Nope. Move slowly closer towards me and turn your back a little to me", said the clone. Axel was confused but did. As fast as Tilian could he opened the backpack and grabbed a Tagblaster to aim at the soldiers. Axel did the same.

"Estrays in sector 30.9", hissed one soldier of the CP into his radio set. "Expecting confirmation of identy. Suspicion: Axel Manning and clone number 0001."

"So now we got numbers instead of names?", asked Tilian and rose an eyebrow.

The soldiers didn´t reply. The one with the radio set got a reply from the headquarter now. "Suspicion confirmed. Scanner photos were compared with files. 100 percent match to the identy of the two. Order: No elimination but arrest at once. In case of resistance to arrest immediately paralyzation or use of arrest virus 2.3", said a cracking voice.

"Freeze! You´re arrested with immediately effect. One move and we´ll be forced to-"

Tilian just grinned brightly and gave Axel his Tagblaster.

"To do what? You´re threatening me? You´re just a silly copy of me and my friend here, always remember that. Without us you wouldn´t exist." Tilian walked slowly towards the soldiers. Then he suddenly stopped. One soldier talked to a person with his radio set. Soon he got his orders.

"Change of aim. Arrest them, aim number one: Axel Manning. In case of resistance to arrest kill clone number 0001 and paralyze Axel Manning."

"If I were you I wouldn´t move", said Axel to Tilian and walked over to him. He was sure the soldiers wouldn´t kill him, but in case they would do with Tilian. Tilian just nodded slightly and stared angry at the soldiers in front of him. "I already ordered help", whispered Axel as quiet as he could.

"So guys", said Axel and walked towards the soldiers. "To see you all here it´s like being surrounded by ugly mirror images. And do you know something? Now that you share my DNA you have my biggest weakness, just like Tilian has, too."

"Impossible. The genetic improvement deleted all the weaknesses in your genetic code. We´re without any flaw", said a soldier, still aiming at Axel.

"That´s exactly what Lee wants you to think. But do you wanna know about my - sorry, I mean _our_ - weakness?", grinned Axel. "Can´t stand away from beautiful girls."

Confused about this the soldiers looked at Axel. Suddenly someone came from behind and knocked out a soldier. It was Lioness. At once they started shooting at her, but she avoided the attacks and kicked and punched the soldiers. Axel and Tilian helped her, some other rebels came too and fought with the soldiers. Suddenly a sniper on the roof shot at Axel.

He was hit in his right arm. With a lot of pain in his arm he sank to his knees. Lioness came over to him and looked at his arm. She pulled something small out of it. And was shocked. "We have to bring him away from here, fast!"

**So, chapter 5 :P **

**Okay, some people asked me why Lioness kissed Tilian at the beginning of the last chapter. Well, even though I'm a huge AxelxLioness fan I just wanted to try something new. Moreover my favorite character is Tilian so...why not:) So if you don't like the idea of Li and Tilian getting together, don't continue reading this story. I hope you understand this! And just btw, there are quite a lot Ax and Li stories here, but this is the first Till x Li story :P **

**Why shouldn't I try something new? ;)**


	6. Virus 23

Virus 2.3

During the fight Tilian and Lioness lifted Axel carefully. He nearly lost conscious, his eyes were half closed and he began to sweat terribly. They used the trouble and confusion of the fight to get away. Tilian just looked asking at Lioness.

"They shot with a virus-arrow at him. I don´t know much about this, we should ask Garrett. But most important is to bring Axel fast away from here", she said as they walked into a house, into its cellar and through a secret tunnel back to their headquarter, station number 12.

"Garrett, alert code 13. Axel is hit, maybe with a virus-arrow type 2.3", said Lioness while she and Tilian carried Axel through the main hall of their hiding place. They went through a door under the footbridge on the wall and were in a very small hospital. In his room were medicines, first aid kits, five empty beds with white covers and nearly everything you´d find in a normal hospital.

The two laid Axel into a bed and quickly Garrett and the others of the team came to them.

"What happened?", asked Hawk.

"The CP caught us on the way back to this station", explained Tilian. "Luckily Li and the others came just in time."

Garrett shook his head. "Doesn´t look good. It is really the virus 2.3. It won´t attack _us_, but it will go through his whole body and infect everything. No one knows the exact process of the illness this virus causes, but if the CP uses it...that means nothing good."

"You mean it won´t attack us?", asked Shark.

"No. The CP uses this virus to arrest rebels easier. After the arrest they give the arrested rebels at once an antidote. The virus doesn´t attack other organisms exept the one it had been injected into. So the CP can make sure they won´t be attacked themselves", explained Garrett. "Maybe if I give him a high dose of morphin and something to slow down his metabolism..."

"Will he survive?", asked King worried.

"He maybe won´t...", mumbered Garrett. "Please leave now, he needs rest. I´ll give him the medicine, I can´t do more for him."

Axel laid in the bed, his face cramped in pain. He had lost conscious as Tilian and Lioness had come into the headquarter. Now he whispered something in his sleep the others couldn´t understand, then he growled in pain or kept quiet for some seconds. Sweat was on his forehead and his muscles were strained. As if he was fighting.

The friends went out of the room. Dragon, who had watched all this, stood in a corner of the room. He then took his mask, put it on and left the station quickly. No one noticed he was gone. Usually he was outside at this time, keeping watch or watch some soldiers.

"Let´s face it..without Ax-man we´re lost", said Shark sadly and sat down on the couch. Hawk leaned against a wall while King and Lioness sat down, too. Tilian stood there and stared at the ground, deeply in thoughts.

"If he dies...we´ll all do", agreed Hawk. "So why shall we fight...?"

Tilian growled angry. "You´re really asking this? We could live the last four years without him, and now that he´s nearly dying you tell us we´re lost? And why do you even think of his death? Of course he´ll survive! But I just can´t stand around here and hope for the best. I´ll go", growled Tilian and climbed the ladder to walk into the corridor where the team´s rooms were.

"Tilian! Wait!" Lioness ran after him and climbed the ladder, too. To disappear in the door as well.

"He´s right", said King. "We shouldn´t think of the worst. Axel stayed through worse. He´ll make it."

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Lioness found the clone in his room, searching under the bed for something. As he heard a sound behind him he suddenly winced alarmed and his head hit the bed. Rubbing his aching head he faced Lioness who crossed her arms in front of her chest. He just snorted shortly and continued searching under his bed. Lioness came in and closed the door.

"What are you doing there?", she asked confused and sat down on the bed.

"Trying to find something", he replied shortly and stood up, now opening the wardrobe. Lioness was surprised as she saw that behind the clothes that hung in the wardrobe was a door. Tilian did a retina-scan and typed a code. Then the door opened and he took something out of the small room behind the door. Quickly he threw it onto the bed and began to search in some drawers.

"A jumpsuit?" Lioness looked at the darkgreen jumpsuit on the bed. It looked like Tilian´s current one, but had some design-changes. Tilian just nodded and finally found a box in a drawer. He laid it on the bed next to the jumpsuit.

"What are you going to do?", asked Lioness. She wanted to open the box but he held her back, shaking his head.

"Don´t open it."

"Why not?"

"Not without knowing how to open it", he replied and opened the box that quickly on a way Lioness couldn´t follow that she just took the box surprised. "A security lock. You shouldn´t ever get the idea to search for anything in my room. I´ve a lot of those security locks. If you open it there will be a small detonation, not very big but enough to burn your face away", he explained.

Then he put off his jumpsuit while Lioness checked the things in the box.

"Smoke bombs?", she asked confused.

"Yes." Tilian put on the pants of the new jumpsuit and the shoes. At last he put on the shirt and put the smoke bombs into the small pockets on his orange belt.

"Now tell me what you´re going to do, and why you changed your clothes." Lioness stood up and blockated his way out, expecting an answer. He sighed.

"I´m breaking into the the CP station near the mall. It´s one of their headquarters. In my undercover job I don´t have a high enough rank to be allowed to wear the antidote for the virus with me. So I´ll steal it."

"You´re doing this for Axel?"

"He´s our last hope in this fight. I won´t waste the chance to get my freedom back, and I won´t risk his life. Now let me go..."

"And the suit?"

"Is a prototype. Garrett designed and upgraded it a little. It gives me more protection if someone shoots at me, moreover the night ops mode is improved so that you won´t see me even with a heat sensor camera. Under the shoes and on the gloves is a special electro-magnetical glue with which I can climb walls. When I send and electric pulse, by touching this point on the belt, the glue is activated and I can climb."

Lioness rose an eyebrow.

"I thought it´s time for a test wear", finished the clone and wanted to pass her, but she blockated his way again. Lioness looked at him, from head to shoe.

"Looks interesting..and, cute snake", she smirked a little as she saw the snake on Tilian´s right arm which wrapped around it one time. The snake was hissing. Tilian just grinned.

"Garrett thought of an individual design. Now, let me pass please", replied Tilian and tried to walk past Lioness. She stopped him again.

"One last thing", she said.

"And that is?"

"Just...this..." Lioness lifted her head and suddenly kissed him. Tilian was surprised about this and didn´t know what to do. Lioness wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes. She was his best friend, not his lover. But...what if he was wrong? What if there were really more feelings for her?

This kiss...it felt just too good to break it. Every part of his body felt this amazing feeling that went through him faster than an electrical shock. It was a gentle prickle which made his heart beating faster.

Suddenly someone came into Tilian´s room. At once the two sprang away from each other. Lioness blushed heavily. Shark looked at the two. "Sorry dudes...but Garrett said he wanted to see you." With this Shark left the room and closed the door again.

Tilian didn´t even look at Lioness as he headed for the door. As if nothing had happened between them. This made Lioness feel miserable. Maybe it had been a mistake to kiss him? She followed after some seconds.

In the great hall they met Garrett. "Ah, I´ve expected to see you in that suit. You know the functions?"

Tilian nodded. "Then good luck. Axel´s life is in your hands, if you fail he´ll die. Without an antidote he won´t make it", said Garrett sadly. "Good luck, you´ll need it."

"Wait, you know about his plan?"

"Of course", said Garrett and looked at a very confused Lioness. "Since I noticed he opened the secret door in the wardrobe. The lock on it is connected to my laptop, if someone opens it I can see it. And I knew he wouldn´t let Axel die. Because of all of us here."

"You amaze me more and more Garrett", smirked Lioness.

"Li, I want you to bring him to exit C. Someone has to lock and unlock the doors. And Tilian, you come back through entrance B, alright?"

"Understood."

Lioness and Tilian walked, in complete silence, to exit C. Lioness tried not to look at him, but his eyes fascinated her. Sometimes he didn´t show even one single emotion, but at other times she could read his feelings in his eyes like in an open book. Almost perfectly he was able to control his feelings. As she caught herself looking at him again she quickly looked away.

As they reached exit C Lioness looked at her watch. "Now we have 2:32 am. If you´re not here at 5am we´ll go and search you, ok?"

"Alright", agreed the clone and Lioness unlocked the door. Tilian stood next to her and waited for the door to open.

"Oh, and Li?"

She looked into his eyes. "Take care of you, even when I´m not here", he said quietly and slipped through the open door. Lioness nodded. "Be careful." She closed the door and locked it tightly. Then she walked back to the others.

**Helloooo )) I hope you liked this one, the next will be up soon! **


	7. The Dragon and The Lizard

The Dragon and the Lizard

Soon Tilian reached a street. To his left was a barrier of soldiers, to his right disappeared the street in the darkness of the night. He had to reach the underground way to the mall, if he reached the canalisation he could pass station 7, they would help him to get there without being seen. With a bad feeling of being watched he sneaked down the street.

The soldiers didn´t notice him coz he used his night opps. He swallowed and hid behind the next corner to look around. Axel´s life laid in his hands, and the future of everyone. If Axel survived their chances to beat Lee were very big. So if Tilian failed they would be lost.

As he heard voices he pressed his back to a wall and waited. Two CP´s came around the corner, talking to each other. Quickly Tilian jumped onto them, knocked them out before they could even say a word or give alarm. In the pocket of one of them he found an identy card. _I´ll need this to get into the security lab with the antidote_, he thought and put it into his pocket.

After checking the soldier´s pockets and bags he threw them into an empty house, grabbed one of their guns and locked the door after cutting the circuits of their radio sets. Then he studied the gun. _Simple design, not much power. But it´s enough in case I´ll need it. Let´s hope it won´t come that far..._ Tilian ran down the street, deeper into the city´s center.

Sooner than he thought he reached the house he had searched for. Slowly he sneaked into it, carefully listening if he heard voices of soldiers. As everything was quiet he went in, found the stairs and went into the cellar. Behind a wardrobe he found an airingshaft, just right there where he had expected it. With a slight grin of satisfaction he krept into it.

The air in there was thick and old. It was hard to breath for Tilian, sometimes he thought he would faint every moment. But he forced his body to continue, so he could reach an exit. In front of him the shaft continued, to his right was an exit which led into another room of a house. He looked through the metal grating of the small exit and looked around in that room.

It was dark in there, but the clone could see an old table, a chair and a window which was barricated with wood. Only a little light from the streetlamps came through the gabs between the wood.

Tilian wasn´t far enough yet. As he wanted to continue creeping he suddenly noticed voices in the room he left behind. Someone put away the grating and looked into the shaft. Quickly Tilian continued creeping, hoping the soldier wouldn´t see him. He nearly forgot he was using night ops, but the soldier could hear the noise he made. So he got distrustful.

The clone just went farther. Then there was a sound in the shaft and he turned quickly around to see someone had thrown a hand grenade into the airingshaft. Quietly he cursed and moved faster. There was a hole in the way in front of him, if he could made it that far before the hand granade exploded...The small bomb made a permanent ticking sound.

Shortly before it exploded the ticking sound became faster. Only some more metres...

The hand granade exploded and a wave of fire went through the shaft into every direction. Tilian jumped the last metre, his head first, and dove into the hole in the airingshaft. This hole turned out as another way of the airingshaft. The clone fell, the fire followed him. Hardly he reached the bottom of the shaft and got quickly onto his knees again to jump out of the way.

The fire followed him, but it was too weak meanwhile and simply disappeared. Relieved Tilian breathed out slowly. He looked around and tried to recognize his surroundings. But he had never been in this part of the airingshafts.

"Oh great", he mumbered annoyed and decided to get back to the way he had come from. Maybe the soldiers were gone now. So he crept into the old airingshaft again, seeing all the metal walls were black because of the bomb. He took his old way again, creeping faster than before. In the hope to get away there fast without being seen again.

As the shaft ended he climbed through the exit and placed the metal grating in front of the exit again, as if it had never been removed. Now he was in the janitors closet of a small café. This café was not used very often. So the owner had simply closed it after some time. All the things that had happened had ruined his business. So now it was empty.

Tilian walked out of the small closet and into the kitchen. Here he expected no danger. Everything was dark and quiet. Who´d search here for him? Quickly he went through the kitchen and into the café. Tables laid all over the ground, some of them destroyed. The wide windows were destroyed, too, and all the pieces of the broken glass laid on the ground.

The clone knew that here had been a battle between rebels and CP some days ago. He had heard the sound of shots in the streets while trying to get to another station. The rebels had won this small battle, but meanwhile this area was under CP control again.

Carefully he stepped out of the shop and ran across the street. The mall was not far away from him. Station 7 was in the other direction, he needn´t to go there. He would reach the mall alone. Quickly he checked his watch. 3:00am. Good. He had enough time to get the antidote and then to get back home.

He pressed his back against a wall and tried to see a way in this darkness. His reptile eyes helped him a lot. Grinning he ran towards the way he had found. Behind the street barrier of stapled broken cars he nearly crashed into a group of soldiers. Quietly, as quiet as he could, he sneaked over to the wall and sneaked along it to pass the soldiers without being seen.

His pulse was terribly fast and he was afraid they could notice him every moment. But they didn´t. They just stood there, tired of keeping watch every night and sometimes they talked to each other about whatever.

Relieved of being not discovered yet Tilian continued and followed the main street to the mall. Next to it had been a government building. It was still one, but now there was a lab and one of the main stations of the CP.

He ran towards it and hid behind a small wall. The supervision cameras wouldn´t see him, so Tilian trusted his night ops and ran towards the wall. Under a camera he stopped, found a side entrance and opened the door as no camera looked into his direction. As the camera looked into his direction again the door was closed as if it had never been opened.

Tilian was in. Now he just had to find the lab...

Some corridors, doors, knocked out guards and destroyed cameras later he finally found it. In the lab was a big drawer. Quickly he opened it, checked everything in it and could find a lot of canisters with a green liquid. "Antidote Virus 2.3" said a description on the canisters. Tilian grinned satisfied, took at least five of the canisters and put them into a backpack he had brought with.

Suddenly someone came into the room, landing behind him. Before the clone could even turn around someone hit a special place on his back of the neck hardly and his view turned blurry, nearly white. Hardly he could manage not to pass out. He fell to his knees and looked up. Someone stood over him, hesitating.

"Tilian?" It was Dragon. He was surprised but helped the clone up.

"What are you doing here, ninja?", asked Tilian and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry about this. I knocked out so many clones meanwhile I don´t know the difference between you and them."

"You didn´t answer my question."

"I´m here to find the antidote for Axel", explained the ninja.

"Me too", said Tilian and put the last canisters into his backpack. Dragon took some canisters too and put them into a backpack as well.

"Then we had the same idea", he said and seemed to smile under his white mask.

"So, let´s get outta here before the guards wake up!"

"Agreed."

The two quickly searched their way out of the building. But on the street they ran into a trap. Soldiers aimed at them with their guns, stood in a circle around them and the two couldn´t escape.

"Rebels in sector 54.2", said a soldier. "Expecting orders. Suspicion of identy not confirmed yet."

"Sorry guys", said Tilian hissing. "But I didn´t want to stay around." He activated his night ops again and disappeared in front of the soldier´s eyes. Confused about this they looked around, afraid he could appear somewhere behind them.

"Calling help by helicopter with-" Before the soldier could finish he fainted and fell onto the ground. Now Dragon attacked them, too, cut their guns with his sword and kicked or punched them. Tilian turned visible again and grinned as he kicked the last soldier.

"Wait", he said to Dragon who wanted to run into another direction. "I know a shorter way."

"Whatever you say", said the ninja and bowed to him. Tilian just nodded and led them into another direction.

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Lioness looked at her watch. 4:53am. Tilian had 7 more minutes, otherwise they would search for him. The others had went to bed, exept for Lioness, Garrett and Shark. But while Lioness walked up and down Garrett and Shark sat at the table in the kitchen, half asleep.

"Li, calm down", said Garrett.

"The dude is right...he´ll come back", yawned Shark and laid his head on the table, his eyes half closed.

"I can´t...Tilian isn´t here yet and Axel may die if he comes too late..."

"Who said I´m too late?", asked someone who came in. It was Tilian, followed by Dragon. Both of them had backpacks filled with something. Relieved Lioness hugged the clone and took a backpack. She looked into it.

"The antidote!" Happily she smiled. Garrett quickly took one canister and rolled with his wheelchair into the room where Axel was.

"I´ll give him the antidote, then we´ll see if he will recover or not."

Dragon and Tilian placed the rest of the canisters in a drawer in their small hospital and left the room. Shark stood up and walked into his room. "Sorry guys, but now that everything is okay again I´ll go to bed", he yawned and disappeared in his room. Dragon just bowed to Tilian and Lioness and jumped onto the footbridge over their heads, to get into his room as well.

Tilian just yawned tiredly and sat down on a chair in the kitchen. Lioness simply smiled and went for a moment to Garrett to see if the antidote worked. As she came back she found Tilian still sitting there, his head laid on the table and he was asleep. Lioness smiled. _He looks cute when he´s sleeping_, she thought jokingly and made some coffee.

She put two cups onto the table, Tilian woke up alarmed and looked sleepy around. Lioness just smiled at him and sat down next to him. "Thought you wanted to drink something", she said and looked at the cup of coffee in front of him. She drank her own coffee then.

"Thanks, but no", replied the clone and pushed the cup away from him.

"By the way, it´s Hawk´s birthday soon", said Lioness. "One day after the date on which Axel´s father disappeared. And then is _your_ birthday too." She grinned.

"Ts, birthday...who needs this? I have never been born, I have been created with technology." Tilian yawned. "But why are you coming up with this now? Theoretically I had _birthday_ the last four years as well."

"Dunno, just crossed my mind. Maybe it would light up everyone´s mood a little if we had a party or two."

"I don´t want a party. This birthday-thingy reminds me of what I really am. That..." He yawned again. "That I don´t have any family, no mother, father and so on. So you´re not celebrating my birth but the day on which the cloning process was finished."

"You´re a little like Axel."

"We share DNA if you forgot, darling", smiled the clone jokingly and yawned again, leaning back in his chair.

Lioness laughed shortly. "No, I mean that you have no family."

"That´s wrong again. Axel _had_ family, he knows this feeling of...well, of being loved, of being safe. I never had such feelings. I´ve been all alone since the day of my creation. Never had anyone cared much about me, except Lee. But he just shouted at me when I failed again. Ever seen a loving mother or father shouting at the own child?" He laughed ironic. "No, that´s completely wrong. You can´t compare me with anyone of you."

"I was just asking", said Lioness and smiled slightly to light up his mood. He just smiled back and Lioness could look at his sharp reptile fangs.

Garrett came out of the room and over to them. "So guys, he got the antidote, his pulse, heartbeat, etc. are normal. He may wake up soon."

"Great news", smiled Lioness.

"Then I know I didn´t fight all the dudes for nothing", said Tilian satisfied and looked at the two.

"I´ll go to bed now. See ya tomorrow", grinned Garrett and went into his room just like all the others had done before. Now Lioness and Tilian were alone. Tilian sat on the chair, his arms crossed behind his head and laid relaxed back. His eyes were closed and he yawned shortly.

Lioness looked at him and smiled slightly. As he opened his eyes he noticed she looked at him and so he just smiled back. Lioness looked away, her smile disappeared and she stared at the cup of coffee on the table in front of her. The clone noticed her worried look and tried to look into her eyes.

"Something wrong?", he asked quietly. Lioness looked up and directly into his red reptile eyes. They fascinated her, she didn´t knwo why. They were so different from normal human eyes, but they showed or didn´t show emotion as well as normal eyes did. Nevertheless they were strange, but interesting. And somehow beautiful.

"When all this is over...", began Lioness and sighed. "But I guess we´ll all die before."

"Don´t think so negative. We have the antidote for the virus now, so even if they try to fight us with that biological weapon we won´t die. Tomorrow I´ll go with a backpack full of those canisters around and give them to the stations. If everyone of us carries at least a little of the antidote with him he can drink it when he´s hit, and that at once. A big advantage."

"That´s right...I don´t know the reason why I´m worried", said Lioness and stared at the table again. No one said a word. But then Lioness couldn´t stand the silence. "Listen...because...because of the kiss...I´m so sorry", she whispered without even looking up.

Tilian replied nothing and stared at the table, too. Then Lioness spoke up again. "I´m really sorry...you´re my best friend, I´d intrust you with everything, even with my own life. I don´t want that this will come between us...it was an accident, so...can we forget it? I don´t want to risk our friendship because of this..."

Tilian stood up and stopped on half the way to the ladder. "You´re lying, Li. That was no accident, that were your feelings for me." He climbed the ladder and Lioness heard he closed the door of his room quietly.

**Hui, that's only the beginning of the probs...oO Hope ya dudes and dudettes like this chapter!! ;)**


	8. The Truth

The Truth

For a long time Lioness sat there and stared at the table. Then she decided to stand up and climbed the ladder as well. As she walked past Tilian´s room she stopped in front of his door and looked at it. She hesitated. Then she took a deep breath in and knocked quietly. As she got no reply she just wanted to have a short look at him. Quietly she opened the door and looked in.

The light was turned off, but with the few light that came through the half open door she saw the contours of the furniture. And she saw Tilian laid in his bed, obviously asleep. Very quietly Lioness took a step into his room and walked towards him. Next to his bed she stopped and looked at him.

"I´m really sorry about what happened", she whispered. "Maybe you´re right...that were my true feelings for you, and they still are. But I can´t change them. Nevertheless I don´t want to lose your friendship, you mean too much to me. So if you don´t feel the same way...I can live with that. I just don´t want to lose my best friend."

She wanted to leave but heard a quiet sigh. Lioness turned around and saw that Tilian sat up and looked at her. "Li...you know as well as I do that this will always be between us", he said quietly. Lioness walked back to him and sat down on the edge of his bed, staring at the ground.

"You´re right...", she whispered sadly. "I don´t know why...but...I love you." Now she looked into his face. As he replied nothing she leaned her back against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Tilian just stared at the ground. He was deeply in thoughts and didn´t even notice how close her face was to his one. Lioness moved closer to his face. His eyes looked into hers now.

"Li...", he began, but couldn´t find the right words. He didn´t want to hurt her without knowing his true feelings. Maybe he loved her too, but what if not? Building a relationship to her on a lie? Were those feelings he felt for her just true friendship or more? It nearly drove him crazy that he didn´t know.

Lioness closed her eyes and gently her lips touched his ones. But then he placed his hand on her shoulder and held her back from kissing him. As she looked into his eyes he shook his head.

"No. Not now", he whispered. "You´re my best friend. But I don´t know about my feelings. Please leave now...I wanna be alone..."

Lioness nodded. With a miserable feeling she left his room and closed the door. After she left Tilian sighed and closed his eyes. This was so complicated... He laid back and tried to fall asleep again. But his thoughts didn´t want him to rest. He thought about her...about _them_ all the time. What if he said no? What if he really didn´t love her? Lioness' true feelings would always stand between them. Always.

And what if he said yes? What when he said yes, but it was only a lie? He didn´t know. Tilian closed his eyes and tried to sleep, ignoring those annoying thoughts.

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The next morning Axel hadn´t woken up. The team noticed that Lioness avoided Tilian since he had come into the hall. And it was the other way round the same. Tilian didn´t even make a try to get closer to her. But that wasn´t the only thing that worried them. That Axel hadn´t woken up was another problem. Garrett took care of their old leader while the others were quietly in the hall. No one said a word.

Suddenly Tilian stood up, grabbed a backpack and went to Garrett into their small hospital. He came back with a filled backpack which he threw over his shoulder. Without saying any word he headed for the exit.

"Where are you going dude?", asked Shark confused.

"Bringing the other stations the antidote. Expect my comeback in the evening", replied the clone shortly. Lioness stood up and ran over to him. Quickly she stole him the backpack and took a step backwards as he wanted to get it back.

"I´m going instead of you", she said seriously.

"That´s my job. And I want to fulfil it", said Tilian growling. "You shouldn´t care of this."

"But I can´t just sit around here and do nothing. I want to do something. And I will bring the other stations the antidote", she said angry.

"You will just be caught."

"Why do you think this? I´m as good as you are, as you all are. Just because I´m the only girl here?!"

"No. The situation out there is too dangerous. I´m not needed in this fight, but you are. So if I die no one will care and your chance to beat Lee won´t be weakened", said Tilian and grabbed the backpack.

"I will care", said Lioness angry. "That´s why I don´t want you to go."

"And I don´t want you to go coz I don´t want you to get hurt."

"I will go", said Dragon and walked towards him. Before Tilian could say something the ninja put on his mask again and grabbed the backpack. "And I´ll be here in the afternoon because I know ways you won´t be able to use ever."

Tilian sighed and nodded. Lioness said nothing and just stared at Tilian angry. Dragon went out of the exit and disappeared.

"Well done."

"What now?!", asked the clone furious.

"If you had let me taken the backpack I would have gone. Now this ninja took it!", replied Lioness.

"You don´t even know what you´re saying. You should hear yourself", said Tilian calmly. Seriously he looked into her eyes. "You don´t have to show me your feelings, I already know about them", he said as quiet as possible so that the others couldn´t hear him. "But I want you to know that feelings have to come truely from the inside, not because they have to be there. It needs time. _I _need time."

Lioness kept quiet.

"You know exactly what I mean. So for the next time...mind your own business and leave me alone", hissed Tilian, not loud, but angry. One last time he looked furiously into her face, then he turned his back to her and walked away, leaving Lioness behind.

"Woah, the temperature here is very low", said Hawk as he saw Tilian walking away. Of course he, King and Shark had seen their quiet argue.

"Nope", replied Shark. "There´s a heat between them that makes it so uncomfortable."

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Lioness found Tilian in a room under the roof. He stood in front of a window, his arms based on the windowsill. The window was opened and the cold wind from outside blew in. The sky was covered with dark and grey clouds, from that window you could see Lee´s tower which stood in the center of the city and just looked scary from here.

She walked over to him and based her arms on the windowsill as well. He didn´t even look up. His red reptile eyes just focused the tower and stared at it, deeply in thoughts.

"It's quite cold here, isn't it?", began Lioness carefully.

"I'm poikilothermal."

Lioness sighed. "I´m sorry", she said quietly and tried to get his attention.

"I said leave me alone", said Tilian calmly.

"I wanted to tell you that you shouldn´t be here. Scanners are around and may see you. Wanted to warn you..." Lioness turned around to go.

"Alright", said Tilian and followed her quietly. He looked at her. And tried to find out about his feelings. _I mean...she´s nice, she understands me, listens to me whenever I need her..but that are qualities of a best friend, too. What is love? What am I searching for? _

As they reached the footbridge in the hall again Tilian took her hand gently. At the moment no one was in the hall. "Lioness...I´m sorry, too. But I just don´t know about it. I don´t know wether I love you..."

"We could find out", suggested Lioness. Tilian rose an eyebrow. "I could kiss you and then you tell me about your feelings, if there are special feelings or nothing."

He looked at her for some moments. "I...er...why not? I mean..it´s at least a try..."

Lioness lifted her head and moved her face closer to Tilian´s. For some reason his heart beat faster as he saw her coming closer. Slowly she rose her arms and wrapped them around his neck. Now she touched his lips gently with hers and closed her eyes. Then she kissed him. She put every feeling she had for him into this kiss and clung her body to his.

She broke the kiss and looked into his face. His eyes were closed. "And?", asked Lioness quietly. Tilian didn´t reply, he just looked at her. Slightly he shook his head.

"I don´t know..."

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Axel opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was the attack on him and Tilian, after that he had fainted. Now he laid in a room with four other beds with white covers. Maybe the station for the injured and ill people. Sure was that he was in their headquarter again. With a bad feeling in his head and some pain he stood up, put on his clothes which laid on another bed and walked out of the room.

As he walked out of it he was in the great hall again. Slowly he looked around. No one was there. Exept...he looked up and saw two persons standing on the footbridge. Very close to each other. As he looked a second time at them he noticed that there were Lioness and Tilian. She looked into the clone´s face and expected an answer. He smiled slightly at her and...

Axel couldn´t believe his eyes. Lioness kissed Tilian! _And you lizard told me you don´t love her_, thought Axel angry. He climbed the ladder quickly and walked into his room, closing and locking the door.

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Lioness looked at him. "But I love you", she whispered and hugged Tilian tightly.

"Are you really sure?", he asked and looked into her eyes. "Once you told me you loved Axel, and you would never love another one."

"That was before I got to know you that good..."

"Never thought you could fall for something like me?", he asked and rose an eyebrow.

"Actually...no. No, I have never thought I-"

"Lioness", he said interrupting. "I just want to know if you really love me. You shouldn´t ask me for my feelings, you should ask yourself for your feelings. Coz I believe you still love Axel. "

"Why do you think so?"

"True love never dies", replied Tilian and took a step backwards. "But if you still love him I won´t have a problem with that. Honestly."

He walked past her. Lioness was confused and disappointed. Why did he think she still loved Axel? That was over. She heard that Tilian closed the door to his room. Lioness thought for a moment, but then she quickly followed him. She wanted to tell him that she only loved him, not Axel.

**Wuah, that's gonna be complicated with Ax-man (and just btw...sorry that Tilian is very...well, calm and totally acting out of character in this chap. But the last time Axel saw him and fought with him was four years ago and the lizard really seems to have changed...) Anyway, hope ya don't mind and please review! **


	9. Going farther

Going farther

Lioness followed Tilian as fast as she could. She knocked at his door and waited for a reply. Then she came in. Tilian sat on his bed, staring at the ground. As she came in he didn´t even look up.

"Li...leave me alone", he said without looking up.

"I don´t love him. I just love you...", she began. Tilian stood up. He looked straight at her.

"And why can´t I believe you? I want you to find your true feelings first, then you can come back to me. I could love you when you love me, truely. But if you don´t...I don´t want to build something on a lie. I don´t want to have feelings that aren´t true."

"But I-"

"Don´t tell me again that you love me. Go now, please leave me alone", he said and pushed her out of the door, then he closed it and locked it. With a deep breath in he leaned his back against it and sank to the ground. Why was all this so complicated? Of course he could love Lioness, but he couldn´t believe her. He couldn´t believe she loved him. She still loved Axel, if she knew or not. That was the difficulty.

Lioness stared at his closed door. And thought about his words. _And why can´t I believe you? I don´t want to have feelings that aren´t true..._ How could she find out that she loved him? Not Axel? Lioness headed for her room. This was more complicated than she had thought. Much more complicated.

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The next day Axel was the last one who woke up. As he came into the hall he saw Shark and King were having breakfast in the kitchen, Garrett sat in front of the computers while Lioness and Hawk stood next to something in the middle of the hall and seemed to repair something. As Axel came down everyone looked at him and smiled.

"Good to have you back dude", smirked Shark.

"I don´t know if it´s that good to be back", mumbered Axel and walked over to Garrett. He looked up and smiled at him.

"I see, the antidote worked. And I have a surprise for you. Follow me", said Garrett and Axel followed him to Hawk and Lioness. Only now he recognized what stood there. It was the Airjet, but this one looked much different.

"You recognize it? Since you´ve been gone we made a lot of changes."

"Wanna help us?", asked Hawk grinning and threw a tool towards Axel. He caught it and just smiled. Without looking at Lioness, or even talking to her, he helped them doing more changes on the engine, the inside and even the design. While Axel was working on the engine he looked around. Someone was missing here.

"Where´s Tilian?", he asked after a while and tried not to look at Lioness.

"Haven´t seen him since yesterday evening", she replied and looked at Axel. He noticed her look and just glared at her angry. Then he turned to the engine again. Lioness was confused about this.

"Is something wrong?", she asked. Axel didn´t reply and ignored her. "What´s up?", she repeated, but this time he ignored her as well. With a confused look she knelt down and took care of a wheel.

"I haven´t seen him too", said Hawk and wiped the sweat out of his face. "By the way, did you notice the atmosphere here is a little..cold?" He looked at Axel and Lioness.

"If he wouldn´t ignore me the atmosphere would be much better", growled Lioness.

Axel looked up. "Correct. But I guess even without ignoring you the mood here would be terrible. At least mine. You have no idea!" He threw the tool onto the ground and disappeared in the next door, angry growling.

"Woah, what´s up here? First Tilian and now Axel?" King looked confused at Lioness.

"I really have no idea", she said and turned to the vehicle again.

"Go after him", suggested Shark. "Our dude likes you. And he trusts you most. So you should talk to him."

"But I don´t want to. He´s mad at me."

"For what reason?", asked Garrett.

"I...I don´t know", lied Lioness and left the hall. She passed Tilian´s room. First she hesitated, but then she knocked. No reply. Lioness opened the door and came in. Tilian sat in front of a desk, he seemed to write something. Lioness didn´t come closer to him. She just closed the door and stood in front of it, looking at his back.

"Can I talk to you?", she asked quietly. As she got no reply she sighed quietly. "You´re my best friend. I just want to talk to you."

"Sure", he replied shortly. "What´s up?"

Lioness sat down on his bed. "No one trusts me. Axel doesn't, and you don´t, too. No one believes me."

"Coz you don´t know what you want. That makes it hard to believe you."

"But what shall I do?", she asked and laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Tilian turned to her and looked at her. "Trying to find the truth?", he suggested. Then he turned to the desk again, continuing writing.

"I don´t know the truth", she replied. "That´s why I can´t find it."

"So, you say you love me, but I don´t believe you because I think you still have feelings for Axel. And Axel doesn´t want to listen to you because he saw us at the wrong moment, right? And yes, I know about this. I have heard him walking away."

"And what shall I do?", asked Lioness. "When you-"

"Nah, don´t ask me again. I will tell you _my _feelings when you know about yours. So try to find the truth", said the clone simply without looking up.

"What are you writing?", she asked and stood up to look over his shoulder.

"A list. Garrett told me to write it for the other stations. Then we know what we have in our resources and what we can give the others."

Lioness looked at the list. His handwriting looked just like Axel´s. She grinned slightly. The two were more similiar to each other than she had thought.

"Thanks", she said after a while.

"For what?"

"That I can always come to you and you will listen", she replied. "Even though...you know..."

He just nodded. "That´s what friends are there for."

"I so want to find the truth, but how?"

"Patience. You will find the answer when you need it", said Tilian.

"You´re very wise..."

"..for a clone?", he finished smirking. "Wisedom is a quality that needs time to grow. A quality you can learn. Moreover...I guess four years with Dragon in a small place and soon you just talk of those fortune-cookie-stuff."

"That´s right", grinned Lioness. "What if...what if we forget what happened and just be friends like before? That would be the best I guess...until I know the truth."

"Hey, I already started with your idea", replied Tilian and glanced shortly at her, smiling slightly. "You should say sorry to him, by the way. Tell him about it, if you want. But the least you can do is that you say sorry."

"You mean Axel? He won´t listen in years", replied Lioness.

"Try it. Or I´ll force him to listen", grinned Tilian.

"If you think so...nevertheless, thank you...just for being there to listen to me", smiled Lioness and the clone just nodded. She left his room and went through the corridor. In front of Axel´s door she stopped and hesitated. Should she knock and try to talk to him? Trying was the right word. She was sure he wouldn´t listen to her. Lioness took a deep breath in and knocked.

No reply. Worried she opened the door and looked in. Axel laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"What do you want?", he asked aggressive.

"I wanted to talk to you", she replied quietly. "And to say sorry."

"You´re sorry? For what?", he asked growling, not even looking at her.

"About what happened. It´s more complicated than you think", she began and came in, closing the door. "So...I just want you to listen."

"And what if I don´t want to?", he asked.

"Then I just want you to know that I´m truely sorry about what happened. And I just want you to be my friend again, like before all this happened. I want you to trust me again, just like I trust you now. I...I already talked to Tilian. He agreed that´s the best to forget all this, and I ask you to do the same. Please. I want to be your friend again, our friendship means too much to me to destroy it."

Axel didn´t reply but seemed to think about this. Lioness turned around to leave.

"Li...I´m sorry, too", he said quietly and sat up, looking at her. She turned to him again. "But all this at the moment...the CP, the stress of hiding all the time and no hope to win this fight...it almost drives me crazy. I´m so sorry, I reacted a little exaggerated."

"Can we forget about all this?"

"Sure."

Lioness smiled and Axel smiled weakly back. Then Lioness left his room, lucky to have her best friends back. But she still didn´t know about her true feelings. Now, at the moment it just counted that Axel and Tilian were no more mad at her.

**K guys, everything seems to be alright again...doesn't it? We'll see if it really IS like it seems...Thanks to everyone who reviewed!!**


	10. A weird Night

A weird Night

In the middle of the night everyone was asleep. That was quite unusual becuase normally Garrett and King worked with their computers till the early morning, trying to break some of Lee´s security codes. At this time Hawk and Shark would visit some other stations close to them, or Dragon would be out on patrol. Tilian would check their resources of weapons and food after trying to contact all the stations to check if they were still okay. Axel would try to help anyone while Lioness would repair their security system because there were some errors in the gate to the street southern to them.

But not this night. They all had went to bed earlier. Everyone had been tired because of their long and stressing work in the last days.

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Janus Lee stood in his office, very high in the mainbuilding of his tower. He looked at a map of the city which was stuck to a wall. The CP circle around the city was marked with red, the old town was marked blue, the new one red. With a slight smile he turned away from the map and walked through a door into his lab. Here stood five containers made up of glass and filled with water. They stood in a row next to the footbridge Lee walked on.

After walking through his lab he reached another, bigger one. Here were at least fifty of those glass containers. But they weren´t empty. In the water swam strange, green creatures. More clones. Nearly every week fifty of them were finished and turned into soldiers. In the last years Lee could improve the technology a lot. So the cloning process didn´t last that long.

He checked some notes. Then a soldier came to him. "Sir, here are the status reports." He gave Lee a folder of reports. Lee looked at them quickly.

"Any new idea where the last rebels could hide? Or any new identy confirms?", he asked without looking up.

"Yes, sir. We got information that there is a hiding place under a building not far away from the mall. And we got information from a street patrol that Axel Manning, clone number 0001 aka Tilian and Catalina Leone are hiding there. The scanner-pictures confirmed our suspicion that Axel Manning is involved in this."

"He´s back? And Tilian´s alive?"

"Yes, sir. Here are the photos. We had some problems with getting them because the scanner was...well, nearly destroyed. That´s why it took us so long."

Lee looked at the pictures. "Seems they´re working together now...Find them, and destroy the others, but bring me Axel and Tilian alive. That´s important. You must not fail!"

The soldier nodded and left.

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_Everything was quiet. He stood alone in one dark room which seemed to be an office. A very big one. Behind the desk stood someone. He walked towards him. _

_"Ah, Tilian. I´ve expected you", said the man behind the desk and grinned slightly. Now Tilian recognized his face. It was Lee. Distrustful he took a step backwards. "Nah, you wanna leave so fast? I thought you wanted to stay a little longer."_

_"Sorry, but I´m a very busy man", replied Tilian and moved slowly backwards. _

_Lee laughed shortly. "Man? You are no man. You´re a clone. One of my creations which try to help the world and you call them derisive Clone Police."_

_"Maybe I am a clone, but at least I know where my place is. And I have friends", growled Tilian. _

_"You don´t even know that. And your so called friends don´t trust you."_

_"They do trust me, and Lioness even seems to love me", replied the clone. _

_"She _seems_ to do so. But she doesn´t. Because you´re just a clone, a creature that only exists to be under my control. You´re not supposed to have feelings or friends, you´re supposed to be a lonely warrior of mine. And you´re not supposed to have family. You´ve been created with high technology, and so will your species reproduce. Not with love or something, but with technology. That´s the only way to make sure your species won´t die."_

_"Sure? The human race reproduces the normal way, and they die neither."_

_"Of the humans are enough around. But that´s not the theme. I want you to know that you´re no human, you´re not one of them and you´ll never be one of them. You´re a lonely clone, _my_ creation. Without family, feelings or friends. And exactly because of that point you should be in my army of super beings."_

_"I don´t think so", replied Tilian. _

_"Then you chose the wrong side." Lee shook his head. "But I can easily replace you...as you see." Next to Tilian stood two persons. He suddenly recognized them. There stood Lioness and another clone who looked exactly like Tilian. The clone grinned just at him and Lioness wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Then she turned to Tilian. _

_"Too late, Tilly", she said, evilly grinning. _

_"What the...?" Tilian looked at Lee again. He just nodded. Suddenly four other persons appeared out of nowhere. In the rare light in the room Tilian couldn´t recognize them at once. He looked at the one right to him. _

_"Firekat?", he asked unsecure and just got the roar of a cougar as a reply. The cat-like clone crept towards him, growling furiously. "You left us alone with our destiny, and now we´re prisoners without even an own will", she spat hatefully. _

_"And you´ll pay for what you´ve done", growled another voice. It was Stingfly. He came towards Tilian too. Tilian took a step backwards. _

_"Like a coward you ran away and hid with the other rebels!" Rayza came towards him, growling angry while grinding his sharp teeth. _

_"I guess it´s wrecking time", growled the last voice. Wrecka grinned evilly. _

_"Hey guys, nice to see you again", joked Tilian and smiled weakly. Suddenly Firekat jumped towards him and her sharp claws went through his skin. _

Tilian woke up, bathed in sweat. His pulse was very fast. But then he noticed he was in his bed, in safe. "Now, that was weird", he mumbered. Then suddenly someone opened his door.

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_"You still don´t trust me, do you?", asked Tilian. Axel looked at him. _

_"I trust you, why are you asking that?"_

_"Because you shouldn´t do so", said a voice behind Axel. He turned around. It was Lee. _

_"Lee? What are you doing here?" At once Axel went into fighting position. Suddenly Tilian grabbed him from behind so that Axel couldn´t move. He looked hatefully at Lee who just grinned. _

_"Doing what is necessary", he replied. _

_"And what is necessary?"_

_"Hm...the elimination of you and your friends?" Lee nodded to Tilian who held his claws on Axel´s throat. "Maybe they can´t slice through metal, but they´re sharp enough to kill you", grinned Lee. Axel´s eyes widened. And as he tried to get free he suddenly felt Tilian´s claws cutting through his skin._

Axel woke up, bathed in sweat and with an unregular and fast heartbeat. As he realized he was in his bed he relieved. "It had just been a dream", he mumbered. But then he heard the sound of their alarm system. As fast as he could he jumped out of his bed, put on his jumpsuit and ran out to the corridor. There he met Dragon.

"Wake up the others, code red", ordered Axel. Dragon nodded and headed for the rooms of the others. Axel did the same. He ran into Tilian´s room and saw his clone was awake.

"Hurry up, alert code red!", said Axel shortly. Tilian nodded and jumped out of his bed as well. Quickly he got dressed and followed Axel into the great hall where they met the others.

"What happened?", asked Shark.

"Someone got into our hiding place. I´ll check the supervision cameras", replied Garrett, typing into the computers. Shocked he turned to his friends. "CP! They are coming from everywhere! Through entrance A and A1, they blockated exits A to D and move closer to us with every second!"

"Any plan for this case?", asked Axel.

"Nope, not really. We planned something in case they come through one entrance or exit. But not through all of them! We´re trapped here!"

"I´ll order help from the stations around. Now you think about a plan!" King went to the radio set, trying to contact any other station. Then he suddenly cursed. "The contact broke, the readio set is dead!", he shouted.

"Lioness, get the Tagblasters, Shark, bring the smoke bombs and the gas masks! Garrett, try to blockate the doors as long as possible!", ordered Tilian. Garrett nodded and Lioness and Shark ran into different directions to do what Tilian told them.

"And we others build barriers on the ladder and the door overhere. Then we stay on the footbridge and wait for them to attack. And this is the plan. When they are in here we use our gas masks and throw the smoke bombs down there. Most of them will faint, the rest won´t be a problem. Understood?"

"Alright", agreed the others and used furniture to blockate the doors. Then they all climbed the ladders to the footbridge and tiped over some tables to hide behind it. Together Dragon, Axel and Hawk carried a big drawer to one ladder and laid it onto the hole in the footbridge through that you could reach the ladder. Now there was only one way left to get onto the footbridge, and that was over the other ladder in opposite of them.

Suddenly there were loud and dull noises. They came from the doors. "They try to break through", shouted Garrett who was on the footbridge, sitting behind a tiped over table. He typed hectically into his laptop and tried to blockate the doors as long as possible. Shark came back, climbed the ladder and gave everyone gas masks and smoke bombs. He placed the rest next to Garrett.

Lioness came back some seconds later. She threw a Tagblaster to everyone and knelt down next to Garrett, looking over the edge of the table, ready to shoot everything that would come into her view.

Meanwhile King, Hawk and Shark placed another drawer on the hole for the ladder. Now no one could leave the footbrigde or come onto it. They were trapped, no chance of escape was in sight. But at least they could fight the soldiers from above.

"Dragon, where´s your master?", asked Axel, hid behind another table and leaned his back against it. The ninja came over to him.

"I wouldn´t worry about him. He´ll survive. If I were you I´d worry about what is going to happen to us", he replied, looking over the edge of the table and waited for the soldiers to come into the hall.

Suddenly a row of explosions blasted the doors away and soldiers ran into the hiding place, their guns ready. Confused they looked around because they saw no one. And everything was quiet.

"Now!", yelled Tilian, put on the gas mask and threw a bomb down. The others did the same. As the smoke bombs hit the ground they sprang open and set a yellow gas free. Coughing the soldiers sank to their knees and fainted. Carefully Axel looked over the edge of the table. More soldiers came in, this time with gas masks as well.

"Forget the smoke bombs", said Hawk quietly. "We need another plan."

"I have one", smirked Lioness and jumped up. Quickly she aimed at the big lamp under the ceiling and shot. The shot went through the ropes that held the lamp under the roof. It fell and hit some soldiers. As the soldiers began to shoot at her she hid behind the table again.

"Next suggestion?", asked Tilian.

As a reply he just got shaking heads. "Alright, then plan C."

"C? We don´t have a plan C!", said King.

"Now we have one", grinned Tilian took Garrett´s laptop before the guy could protestate. Quickly he logged into the security system and pressed the enter key. Suddenly the sprinkler system started and fire alarm ringed. Water came from the ceiling and made the soldiers wet. Surprised about this they forgot their defend for some seconds. Enough time for Tilian.

Then he logged into the remote system of the Airjet. With a slight grin he activated the vehicle. It raced out of its garage and into the great hall. The soldiers who were still surprised because of the "rain" noticed it too late. The car drove through their rows and hit a lot of them. Then it turned a sharp curve and stopped shortly. It seemed to look at the soldiers before its next attack.

Tilian grinned satisfied and pressed a key. At once the Airjet´s wheels screeched loudly, some smoke appeared behind the car. Then it raced towards the next soldiers, like a dangerous animal.

But suddenly something happend no one had thought of. A soldier jumped the vehicle and threw a hand grenade into it. Then he jumped off the car. Everyone ducked as the Airjet exploded and flames rose metres high. Shocked Tilian stared at the screen of the laptop. _Connection broken_, said it.

"Um...anyone for plan D?", he asked unsecure and looked over the edge of the table.

Garrett took the laptop again, trying to break a code that could maybe help them. "When I get into the security system of their suits I could deactivate them", he mumbered. "Without their high tech suits they won´t be that strong."

But then something small landed next to them and began to tick. Everyone´s eyes widened.

"Get outta here!", yelled Axel.

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed!!! And I hope ya will continue reading this story even though it's gonna be a Li/Till one. (Snake Eyes is acutally the name for this pairing!) XP**


	11. On The Run

On the Run

"A hand grenade!", yelled King. At once everyone moved away from the small bomb. King, Shark, Axel and Tilian went into one direction, Garrett, Dragon, Lioness and Hawk into the other one. As the grenade exploded they hid behind tables and were pressed against the wall. Now there was a big hole in the footbridge and the whole wall was black.

Suddenly another hand grenade landed right in front of King. "Oh no", he just said. But Tilian was faster. He grabbed the grenade and threw it back to the soldiers. They ducked as it exploded.

"We can´t win this!", said Shark. "They´re too much!"

"Maybe." Axel stood up, aimed with his Tagblaster at one of the computers in the hall and shot.

"What are you doing?!", asked Garrett over their communicators. Suddenly the computers exploded, the soldiers were thrown against the walls and passed out.

"Is there any exit with not so many soldiers?", asked Axel quickly.

"Exit B", replied Garrett shortly.

Tilian understood. "Okay guys, give this station up! Now through exit B!", he yelled. Everyone nodded and jumped off the footbridge as long as there were no soldiers around. Quickly they ran towards exit B, through the door. Tilian stopped Axel as everyone went through the exit.

"The electric utility", said the clone shortly.

Axel got it. Both aimed at the utility and shot at the same moment. The electric utility began to burn, then there was another big explosion. The whole building shook, stones came from the ceiling and smoke was everywhere.

"Time to leave this place!"

The two ran through the exit when suddenly the energy wave of an even bigger explosion caught them and threw them out of the exit tunnel. They landed in front of their friends who waited there. Then the exit tunnel collapsed and they were in safe. For the moment. As Axel tried to stand up he felt a terrible pain in his leg. With a short scream he sank to the ground again, closing his eyes in pain.

"What´s up?", asked Lioness and knelt down next to him.

"My leg...I can´t stand up", he growled, feeling this terrible pain.

"We have to get away from here!"

Garrett looked shortly at Axel´s leg. "Doesn´t seem to be broken. But you shouldn´t move it", he said. Axel nodded.

"Can´t you do anything against the pain?", he asked pleadingly.

"Not at the moment. We should go to station 11, they´re closer. There they should have enough medicine. But now you have to suffer this pain. I´m sorry", replied Garrett.

"Station 11? That´s at least half an hour till there!", realized Hawk.

King and Dragon helped Axel up. He breathed hissing in as the pain grew bigger. This way they walked through the tunnel to station 11. But on their way they surely had to cross two streets.

"I have an idea...but I´m not sure if you like it", said Tilian as Axel´s face cramped in pain again.

"Do whatever helps against that pain", replied Axel, not even looking at his clone.

"Whatever you say", said Tilian. He breathed deeply in, then he spat his venom at Axel´s leg. Shocked Axel looked at him.

"What are you doing?!"

"When you can´t move your leg you won´t suffer that much pain", explained Tilian. Before Axel could snap something at him Garrett cut him off.

"He´s right. Very clever idea if I may say so", he smirked.

Axel kept quiet as Tilian just grinned satisfied. The whole way to station 11 they said nothing. Axel looked at Dragon. The ninja walked next to them, just like the others he said nothing. He had never said much. Axel was still worried because of Quang. The Jo-Lan master hadn´t talked to Axel. Not even when Axel had asked him. He had kept quiet all the time.

Axel couldn´t wait to beat Lee. After all this Quang would tell him finally the truth about his father. At least he hoped so. But what if Quang didn´t survive the attack? Axel hadn´t seen him for a long time.

"Don´t worry, young warrior, he´s alive", said Dragon as if he knew what Axel thought. Axel just looked away and closed his eyes. The pain in his leg was not that strong like at the beginning, but it was still there. Nevertheless Tilian´s venom helped a lot.

"We´re nearly there", said Tilian into the silence. "Just around this corner and then across the street..."

As they went around the corner they stopped. "But...where´s the street?!", asked Hawk. In front of the was the door to the street, yes, but it was blockated. By a black wall. Dragon touched the wall.

"We could try to use Jo-Lan, if you feel strong enough", said the ninja to Axel. Axel nodded and King and Dragon let him go. After he could manage to stand on his feet he and Dragon took a step backwards at the same time, then they moved forwards and used their Jo-Lan.

But nothing happened. The wall wasn´t blasted away, not even a scratch appeared.

"That´s weird, dudes", said Shark. "I´ve never seen such a wall before."

"But I did", said Tilian. "It´s a street barrier. We´re on the exact border between old and new town. We´re on the CP circle."

"Let me try", said Lioness. She used the laser of her Tagblaster and began to cut the metal. Hawk helped her. Then they went aside, King, Shark and Tilian ran towards the wall at the same time and tried to push it away. But they crashed more into it than causing damage. Quickly they took a step sidewards so that Axel and Dragon could try using another time Jo-Lan.

After doing so another time it worked. The wall broke finally and as fast as they could the group ran across the street, Dragon and King carried Axel again coz he couldn´t run yet. On the other side they found the entrance to a very damaged house. In this house they went downstairs and into the cellar. Behind some old wooden boxes was a door.

King typed in the code to open it and some moments later they were in station 11.

"Welcome here. What is it that you all came?", asked a friendly woman. Her name was Sheila.

"Our station was attacked. We need medical help at once and a place to stay", replied Garrett.

"Isn´t this...?" She looked at Axel. "It´s Axel Manning! Hey guys! Look who´s here!" Some men came over to them and were surprised to see Axel. Happily they smiled.

"Now we really have a chance to beat the CP", smiled one of them.

Axel was just confused. "Don´t you know? You´re kinda a hero for them since you came here. Coz you and your team beat Lee so often. Now they believe with you on our side we have an even bigger chance", explained Tilian. "And they´re not the only ones. We all think so."

"Even you?", asked Axel.

"Even me."

"Can you write this down for me and sign it?", asked Axel jokingly and Tilian just smiled. Then he turned to Sheila again.

"He needs medical help."

"Of course, follow me", she said and Axel was carried into a room. There he laid down on a bed and Sheila checked his leg. Meanwhile the others went into the biggest room of the hiding place. Station 11 was much smaller than their home, but it was enough. Lioness, King and Shark sat down on an old couch. Hawk sat down on an old armchair, leaned back and tried to relax a little.

Dragon headed for the door again. "I´ll go and search my master, expect my comeback later." With this he left.

Tilian looked at a clock. "Three in the morning", he mumbered. "I´ll check out this place to find some rooms for us." He went out of the room and asked a man for a place to sleep.

"I´m sorry that we don´t have that much space...but you have to take those at the moment", he said and pointed at the two couches, one armchair and three matresses in the room the other teens were in.

"That´s enough. Thanks for all", replied Tilian and told his friends about it.

"Alright, Dragon is not here so...two of us have to share a matress or sofa", said King. At once Shark, Hawk and King jumped up to get the matresses. Garrett got one couch. As Axel came back into the room he saw Lioness and Tilian stood in front of each other, arguing about who should get the armchair. The other one had to share the couch with Axel.

"Forget it, the armchair is mine", said Tilian and folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Okay, lizard, we should fight outside!" Lioness stood on the tip of her toes now to be as tall as Tilian. So she could look easier into his eyes.

"Woah, calm down first. And then we solve this like normal adults would do", suggested Tilian. Before Lioness could react the clone sat down in the armchair and grinned at her.

"Hey!"

"I said like normal adults. Do I look normal for you?", he grinned and crossed his arms behind his head, grinning at her brightly.

"That´s unfair! Your mutation doesn´t count!", said Lioness angry.

Tilian just shrugged his shoulders. Then he laid back and closed his eyes. "Blame Lee for that."

"I will. Nevertheless you´re unfair", growled Lioness, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Then she sat down on the clone´s lap and leaned back.

"What the-?" He stroke her hair out of his face and stood up so that Lioness fell off him. Meanwhile Axel sat down on the couch and like everyone else he watched the scene. It was too hilarious.

Lioness sat down quickly before Tilian could hold her back. He growled something as Lioness grinned at him brightly. Slowly Tilian walked away from the armchair and sat down next to Axel, looking offended.

"Giving up that fast?", asked Axel.

"Don´t think so", replied Tilian quietly and grinned slightly.

Some time later he stood up again and pretended going to the other guys. As he passed Lioness he whirled around, grabbed her on her waist and pulled her out of the armchair. Lioness protested wildly as he lifted her and carried her over to Axel. There he dropped her on the couch and sat down on the armchair again, grinning at her.

"One to nill for the clone", joked Shark.

"We´ll see", mumbered Lioness. She grabbed a cushion and threw it towards Tilian. He caught it and threw it back to her. But Lioness could avoid this and instead of her the cushion hit Axel. Axel grabbed it quickly and threw it on Tilian. The clone ducked, the pillow passed him and landed on Shark who threw it onto King. Soon the room was filled with flying cushions, laughs and screams.

Axel hid behind the couch, just like Lioness. King, Garrett and Hawk hid behind the other one while Tilian and Shark started an offensive fight. Suddenly someone jumped onto Tilian´s back and held the hands in front of his eyes so that he couldn´t see anything. Losing the orientation he fell over King´s leg that he had placed in Tilian´s way. So Tilian landed with his belly on the matress and the one on his back didn´t let go of him.

As Tilian could see again he quickly rolled on his back and buried Lioness under his body. Lioness couldn´t get away from under him, he was too heavy. "Get away", she screamed.

"Say please", he grinned.

"Never!" Lioness got an idea. The other guys didn´t think of helping her, they were too busy with their cushion battle. So she began to tickle Tilian. She didn´t know if he was ticklish, just like Axel, but she tried. And was successful. She found out that he was ticklish on his belly. Laughing he went off her and tried to escape.

"No! Li, let me go!", he laughed as she continued tickling him. But Lioness didn´t stop. His laugh sounded strange, more hissing than anything else. Nevertheless he laughed as hard as he could, nearly stopping breathing. "Li! Stop this!"

Suddenly someone jumped, grabbed Lioness. The two rolled some times and stopped finally. Lioness laid under someone. Axel knelt over her and grinned brightly, then he began to tickle her. Lioness laughed hardly, she couldn´t breath and just laughed.

Then she did a fast move and a second later she sat on Axel´s chest. Surprised he looked at her. "Not so fast", she grinned. But before she could tickle Axel back someone grabbed her from behind. Lioness kicked and struggled wildly, but Tilian held her too tight. Axel could stand up. At the next moment suddenly a cushion flew towards the clone and he let Lioness go.

Tilian threw the cushion back at Hawk while Axel attacked Lioness again. She hid behind King, threw a cushion at Axel and jumped behind the couch. Axel threw the cushion at King who caught it in the middle of the air and threw it on Shark.

Suddenly Sheila came in. "What´s up here?", she asked. "I thought you wanted to rest." She rose an eyebrow. Everyone stopped at once and Sheila just stared at this funny picture. Axel knelt over Lioness, ready to tickle her while she held a cushion in her hand with that she tried to hit him. Tilian and Hawk stood in front of each other, each one ready to hit the other one with a cushion. King was about to attack the clone from behind while Shark tried to hold him back. Garrett sat behind the couch and hid there.

Now everyone stopped in his movement and stared at Sheila. "And what sense did all this have?", she asked confused.

"Um...we found out that even mutated lizards are ticklish", replied Lioness grinning. She earned a cushion Tilian threw into her face.

Moments later they all decided to sleep. Tilian and Lioness decided to give Axel the armchair, the two wanted to share the couch. As everyone was in his "bed" for this night Garrett turned off the light.

Lioness laid on the couch in front of Tilian. The couch was very small, so it was uncomfortable to lay on it with that few space. She nearly fell off it. But Tilian couldn´t sleep as well. Lioness could feel his breath in her neck and his regular heartbeat. As she was sure everyone was asleep she turned to him and saw in the few light that came out of the room next to them that he was awake.

Suddenly Tilian stood up and laid down on the ground so that Lioness laid alone on the couch. She looked surprised at his back which was turned to her. But soon she could fall asleep, just like him.

**Chapter 11! Yay! I really hope you like this story. I'm trying my best )) and PLZ review to tell me 'bout your opinion!**


	12. How to Strike Back

How to Strike back

"Sir", said a soldier and came into Lee´s office. "I...I have to tell you that the rebels could escape. We have confirmation that Axel Manning and clone number 0001 were with them."

"You let them escape?!", yelled Lee. "Find them, destroy the others and bring me Axel and Tilian. That´s important, they must not die! Bring them to me alive, destroy everyone else if you want."

"Of course, sir." The soldier left the office.

"Where are you hiding...?", mumbered Lee and looked at a map of Landmark City. Wherever Tilian and Axel were, it couldn´t last long to find them. The inner circle was too small, and no one could get out of it.

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Early at the morning, after three hours of sleep, Tilian woke up. The others were still sleeping, but somehow he was too uncalm to sleep. So he stood up and left the room. In the kitchen of this station he grabbed a glass and drank some water. As he walked back into the room where the others were he suddenly stopped. Soldiers stood there, their guns aimed at the other teens.

Two soldiers grabbed Tilian, but he kicked them quickly.

"One wrong move and they will all die", said one soldier. Tilian stopped at once and the soldiers arrested him. Everyone looked afraid at the soldiers. One of the used his radio set and contacted the base.

"Confirmation of identy. Bringing Axel Manning and clone number-"

"I have a name you silly fake of a-" Before Tilian could continue a soldier punched him into his stomach. With a terrible pain in his body he looked up. The soldier continued.

"Axel Manning and clone number 0001, also known as Tilian", he said and glared at Tilian. "Expecting orders."

Seconds later came a reply. "Bring them to the tower. You can destroy the others if you want to. No special orders given."

"Alright", said the soldier. "Now, get them outta here and set some bombs. Then tie them to the column overthere. We leave before this place is blowing apart."

Axel and Tilian tried to get free, but the soldiers were too strong and pulled them out of the building. As they were on the street suddenly the whole building blew up, flames rose high into the air, the building collapsed.

"NO!", yelled both of them at the same time. "Let us go!" Axel tried to kick a soldier, but at once three of them grabbed him and tried to make him not move. Only as they threatened him with killing Tilian he stopped. And Tilian did the same.

"You´re just so lucky that he´s my friend...otherwise I wouldn´t care of his death and kill _you_", hissed Axel angry.

The soldiers didn´t care and threw the two into the back of a van. Then they locked the door tightly and drove away from the blown up house. Axel struggled to stand up and wiped the blood away that came out of the corner of his mouth. He got the injury when he tried to escape. Tilian didn´t even try to stand up. He sat there on the ground and stared at it.

Axel failed, couldn´t stand up and leaned his back against the wall of the van. "What...are they going to do with us?", he asked. Tilian didn´t reply at once. Then he loked at Axel.

"I just don´t know", he replied. "But after what happened to the others...I don´t care."

"Don´t say that", said Axel. "I feel as terrible as you...but we have to stay strong. I bet they bring us to Lee, then we can finally get our revenge and the vengeance for our friends."

Axel had wanted to cry, but couldn´t. All his friends, died in that explosion. Just like his father. He buried his face in his hands, trying so hardly not to cry. He tried so hard to stay strong. Quietly he swallowed his tears and took a deep breath in. He felt a hand on his shoulder. With a blurry view he looked at Tilian.

"Do not", he said quietly.

"I can´t", whispered Axel. "We suffered so much pain, so much that we could hardly stand it. And now they...just died in an explosion and we couldn´t do anything. Why can you manage to stay that calm?"

"Coz I focus my feelings on the happenings in the near future. I´ll set all my hate and sadness free when I´m right in front of Lee", hissed Tilian. "He´ll pay for what he has done."

Surprised Axel looked at Tilian and dried his face. "You surprise me everytime a little more", he said, swallowing his sadness. "You grew very wise."

"Just like I said. A long time with Dragon and you´ll talk of that wisedom-stuff."

"Dragon! He wasn´t there, that means he´s still alive!"

"And you think he´ll find us?"

"We can just hope", said Axel. "But at least there is hope."

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"Thanks", coughed Lioness as she crept out of a hill of rubble. Just like the others.

"It was an honour to me", replied Dragon. At the last moment he had come and used his Jo-Lan as a shield to protect the others from the explosion. Then they had enough time to hide under the stairs which didn´t collapse. Fortunately.

"What are they going to do with them?", asked Hawk as he wiped the dust away from his clothes.

"I guess they´ll bring them to the tower", replied King. "They got orders to let them alive. So I bet Lee ordered this."

"We have to get in there, to free them", said Lioness. "Call the other station, our attack begins this night."

"Sure? We didn´t have enough time to prepare..."

"We prepared the last months and waited for exactly this day. Now, call the others, tell them we´ll meet at the underground station in this street. And tell them they should bring everything they prepared for this attack."

"Alright."

"Okay team, maybe for the last time, gear it up!", yelled Lioness and everyone agreed with her.

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Axel and Tilian were tied up and brought into the tower. After a very long journey with a lift they reached an office under the roof of the tower. A soldier pushed them in and left the room again. Now they were alone. Quickly they freed each other and looked around. No one seemed to be in that office.

"There is a door!" Axel pointed at a small door on the other side of the office. They ran across the large room and opened it. Behind that door they found a small lab. Five containers filled with water stood in there. Slowly they walked past them. And one of them was not empty. A shadow that looked like the one of a human being swam in it. The two walked towards it.

"Do you know what´s weird? That guard just left us here...and no one expected us. Theoretically we could leave now", said Axel quietly.

"Nope. The lift is guarded, and here´s no other way out. Jumping off the roof is way too dangerous. We´d die", replied Tilian.

They looked at the container. In it was another clone, something like Tilian. It looked exactly like him. The difference was that this one looked like he was sleeping. Just as an embryo he swam in the water, quietly and somehow peaceful. And this one had no clothes. Tilian stared at the clone for a long time. As if he would look into a strange mirror. Carefully he rose his hand and touched the warm glass.

"Must be strange for you", said Axel.

"It is", replied Tilian quietly. He just didn´t know why, but seeing this creature in the container made him feel strange. He swallowed dryly.

Then the clone opened his eyes and looked at them. Shocked the two guys took a step backwards. A light on the control pult next to the cloning container blinked, the water began to float out of the container. The clone went out of his crouching position and as the water was gone he stood in the container, straight looking at the two.

"Ready to strike", he said, narrowing his eyes, still looking at them.

Tilian´s eyes widened a little. Axel noticed this and looked worried at him. His clone walked to the other one and stopped in front of it. The glass container opened and now the two stood right in front of each other. Tilian and his naked mirror image. Both glared at each other until Tilian began to hiss something. The clone seemed to understand this and listened.

The clone replied. Tilian nodded and answered something as well.

Suddenly they were interrupted by someone who came in.

"I see you found my lab", grinned Janus Lee.

"Lee", said Axel hatefully. "What is it that you brought us here?"

Lee grinned slightly and came over to them. "Fantastic creatures, those clones. Aren´t they? And I see you saw how one of them got finished."

"Ready to strike, sir", repeated the clone and turned to Lee. Lee just nodded to him. The clone looked shortly at Tilian, then he turned around and left the lab through another door. Tilian stared at the now empty container, deeply in thoughts while Axel went into fighting position.

"I see, you won´t listen to me voluntary", smirked Lee. Suddenly Axel felt a sting in his neck, just like Tilian. Both sank slowly to their knees. "Im sorry about this, but at the moment I have not much time. I´ll take care of you later." Then the two fainted.

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Axel woke up first. He found himself lying in a small room. As he looked around he saw that there was no door, but an energy barrier. He knew them already, if he touched them they´d send an electric shock through his body.

"See who woke up. It´s the Jo-Lan guy", hissed a voice. He whirled around.

Behind him in the cell was the rest of the Mu-Team. Firekat, Wrecka, Rayza and Stingfly sat there and glared furiously at him. Axel stood quickly up and went into fighting position.

"Hey guys, nice to see you again", he joked, ready to fight. But then his view got blurry for a moment and he fell again on the ground. Holding his head he tried to get a clear view back. Next to Axel laid someone else. Tilian just opened his eyes and sat up slowly.

"Oh man...", he mumbered, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Don´t stand up that fast", warned Axel him.

Tilian nodded. Then he saw his old team who stared angry at him. "Oh, long time no see!", he said jokingly, with ironic happyness.

"You coward idiot!", spat Firekat and was about to run towards him to kill him. Her claws were ready to attack, just in time Wrecka and Rayza could hold her back from killing Tilian. "You ran away and left us here without saying a word!"

Tilian stood up. "I left you without saying something?! No, I told you about Lee, but you didn´t believe me! It´s all your fault you´re sitting here now!", he yelled back.

"_Our _fault?!", yelled Stingfly enraged.

"If you listened to me you wouldn´t sit here now", replied Tilian. Meanwhile Firekat calmed down, Wrecka and Rayza let her go. After some time she walked slowly towards Tilian. As her face was very close to him she grinded her teeth and growled like a cat.

"You ran away, leaving us here", she spat. "And you didn´t even try to free us."

Tilian grabbed her shoulders and moved his face closer to hers so that their noses nearly touched. Deeply he looked into her eyes. "You did never believe me, so why should I ever help you? You´re just a group of hating clones, clones who´d never help each other. You wouldn´t have helped me if I sat here. Never. So tell me why I should ever help you?!"

He pushed her away, looking angry at her. "In the last years I learned what it means to help each other, at least the ones you trust. Now I know what trust is, what friendship means and what it feels like. I´m no more one of you, this team is past for me. We´ve never been a team, and you won´t be one in a hundred years", he hissed. "Because the trust is missing and instead of this the hate is there."

"Don´t come here with emotion-stuff", said Rayza. "That´s melo-dramatic."

"So? Tell me, who came farther? You, sitting in this prison after I left or me, who found friends, trust and a sense in life?" Tilian took a step backwards.

"One to nill for the lizard", joked Axel and earned angry looks of the Mu-Team.

"Alright, Mr _I-came-so-far_", hissed Firekat. She used her claws and cut the ground in the middle of the room. "This is your side. And this is ours. If you only come one inch over this line..."

"Then what?!"

"We could get the idea to try to throw you through the energy barrier." She turned her back to him, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Do you guys feel this tension here as well?", asked Axel jokingly. He saw how Tilian stared at Firekat, totally angry and filled with hate. Firekat just stood there, her eyes closed and her back turned to the lizard-clone.

Tilian walked over to Axel and sat down on the ground next to him. He still glared at the cat.

"Can´t look away from her?", asked Axel, again joking.

"Nope, her ass is quite cute", joked Tilian and oppressed a laugh. Firekat´s reaction made him grin. She turned to him again, glaring angry. Then she walked over to the other wall and sat down on the ground while Tilian gave Axel a high five.

For the next time there was just silence. No one said a word. Tilian stared at the ground, deeply in thoughts, while Axel tried to get some sleep. But he couldn´t. Then he noticed Tilian´s absent-minded look.

"What are you thinking about?", he asked.

"This clone...he remembered me of myself...of what I really am. When I saw him I somehow noticed that the last years had no sense. Even with friends or family I will always be one of them, just a clone. Nothing individual, I´ll be one of hundreds, thousands who are exactly the same. So now...I´m nothing", he replied.

"That´s not true. You are individual. You have an own character in contrast to those lizards. You can act differently, you´re completely different", said Axel.

"You don´t know what it´s like to see all those clones every day. To know that you have no family, no one who loves you. That you´re just there because of some machines and the idea of an insane man. To realize that you _are_ exactly like them, deeply in yourself. Surfaces can change, but not your true self."

"So what?"

"So what?! You can say this so easy. You had family, people who loved you...but what do I have? Lee and his crazy plans? No, this is going deeper than you think. It...it may be hard for you to understand, but I don´t need you to understand. I´m just one of them, I´ll always be a clone. I´ll always be your copy, no one individual. I´ve been made with a pattern."

"It´s not what you´re made up of, it´s what you made out of it. That´s counting. Not who you were supposed to be, but who you became", said Axel and placed his hand on Tilian´s shoulder.

"Moreover you´re right...I _had_ people who loved me. But my father is gone and I have no family. Just my friends, like you. And...well, I guess Lioness...you know..." Axel looked away.

"Nope. She doesn´t know what she wants. Her feelings for me aren´t true. But mine for her are. That´s another reason why I shouldn´t try to be human..."

"You shouldn´t try. You already are", said Axel. Tilian shook his head.

"And why does it feel so strange when I see all those clones? All those copies of you and me?"

"I don´t know..."

"Aww...I´m nearly crying", said Firekat ironic. She crouched on the ground next to the line and listened to their conversation. "But he´s right. He shouldn´t try to be human, he´s one of them." She looked at Axel and ignored Tilian completely. She was still mad at him.

**Another chapter...and I totally hope you will review! Constructive critism is always welcome! So I know what I can do better next time ;)**


	13. The Attack

Before the Attack

Tilian didn´t even look at her. Satisfied Firekat grinned and licked her hands, just like a cat. Axel stood up. "What about you guys? Never thought about what Tilian thought about? What would you do, what would each one of you do if instead of those lizards other clones walked around?", said Axel angry. "If there were a lot of fish-like clones, big rhinos, insects or even mutated cats?! You would think the same, so don´t blame him for what he´s thinking."

Axel looked furiously at Firekat who just seemed to ignore him. Growling Axel looked at the other clones, they just stared at the ground.

"Let them", said Tilian. "She´s right. I shouldn´t pity myself. I don´t even know why I do so."

"But I know", said Rayza, looking at him. Firekat jumped up.

"Shut up you fool, don´t speak with our enemy!"

"You´re giving _me_ orders?", asked Rayza and stood up now, too. "After Tilian disappeared you thought of yourself as our new leader. You gave us commands and orders, but in the end we landed here. When he had been with us you shutted up, followed _his_ orders. You never tried to be the leader, 'cause you were afraid of him. And just like now, you have fear!"

"He´s right", agreed Wrecka. "You were always afraid of Tilian, and that´s why you respected him and Lee. And now that he´s out of the team you think of yourself as our leader."

"Because none of you idiots could ever manage to lead this team!", hissed Firekat.

"Nope. None could. No one except Tilian. In contrast to you we´ve never been afraid of him, but we respected him as our leader and because his decisions made sense. Yours were...well, useless", replied Stingfly.

"And now that he´s back I guess we finally have a chance to get outta here", said Rayza. He walked over the line on the ground and placed next to Axel. "Because Tilian did the right thing. He turned to the good side and survived."

"But we still live, too!", said Firekat angry.

"We live, but what´s that for a life?", asked Wrecka and followed Rayza´s example. "We´re just sitting here, prisoners without any sense in life."

"Maybe you should follow our example, cutie", said Stingfly and placed next to Wrecka. Now Firekat stood alone on her side, staring at them furiously. Then she just roared and sat on the ground, her back to the others.

"And you wanted to tell me clones can´t be loyal", joked Axel and sat down again. Tilian smiled now.

"I never knew you thought of me like this", said Tilian and looked at the other clones.

"Hey, we´d like to stay on this side instead of the side where an irritated cat shouts at us", grinned Stingfly.

"Now, here shouts a mutated lizard at you", joked Tilian. "What did you wanna tell me?" He looked at Rayza.

"I don´t know much about this, but after Lee put us in here a strange energy appeared. I bet it has to do with the new reactor he installed. The point is, that we all think it sends some strange invisible waves only we can feel. The newer clones got used to this and don´t even feel that waves. But we do. And it does something strange to our minds. Wrecka, for example, can think", replied Rayza.

"Hey!"

"Calm down, rhino", said Stingfly. "He´s right. You´re not as silly as you´ve been before."

"Well, we react all differently on this. Firekat is more aggressive, as you see. Stingfly can´t sleep since this reactor is installed. So he´s all the time tired. And I feel strangely calm, not aggressive or angry or something. Just when I get really mad."

"And I bet it did something to Tilian´s mind, too", guessed Axel. The clones nodded. "That´s why you pity yourself. Because those waves make you think about who you are. About your life. Actually I was wondering why you talked about that emotion-stuff."

"Can´t we turn off that reactor?", asked Tilian.

"We already tried to escape, but in vain."

"Does anyone know what the time is?", asked Axel.

"I bet it´s after midday. Why are you asking?" Rayza looked at him.

"Dragon wanted to come back in the evening. Maybe he finds us before Lee decides to talk to us."

"We can only hope so."

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Firekat still sat there, her back turned to the guys behind her. Angry she stared at the wall, her arms folded in front of her chest. Then she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Quickly she whirled around, jumped onto the guy and pressed him to the ground, kneeling over him and her claws ready to kill him.

"Woah, calm down!" Tilian tried to push her away, but Firekat still sat on his chest, ready to kill him. So he didn´t move, he knew she would kill him if he only moved an inch.

"What did I say about staying on your side?", she hissed.

"You said _we could try to throw you into that energy barrier_ or something in that way. But I don´t see anyone who´d help you. Moreover, you can´t throw me alone", he grinned as her face turned even more serious.

"What do you want?", she spat furiously. And ignored the other clones who stared at her.

"Talking to you", said Tilian.

"Now you can, so tell me what you wanted to say and go away again", she replied.

"Can´t you go off me first?"

"No."

Tilian sighed. "Alright then...we want you back in our team._ I _want you back in our team. We need you to escape", he said.

"How do you want to escape? We already tried but in vain", she hissed, moving her claws closer to his throat. Her tail moved wildly fore- and backwards.

"At least I´m offering you a place in our team. Then we´re together and can think about a plan", suggested Tilian calmly. "Or..you can kill me now, then I´m at least outta this place. You don´t have to be afraid of anything, least of me. Now it´s the other way round, isn´t it? You have the control, do whatever you like. Kill me like you´ve always wanted." He looked deeply into her eyes, saying his words without any shake in his voice.

"I want you to kill me now. Do it!" He still looked at her. His face was serious.

Firekat rose her arm, her claws were out. With a furious face she stared into his eyes. Her arm shook hardly and she hesitated. Now she had the chance to get rid of him finally. But she hesitated. Her arm shook, she couldn´t make a decision. Sweat ran down her forehead.

"Kill me!"

She closed her eyes and retracted her claws. With a shaking body she collapsed on his chest, heavily breathing. Tilian sat up and breathed out slowly while Firekat sat on his lap and buried her face in his chest. "I couldn´t do it...", she whispered. "I..I just can´t kill you..."

Tilian stood up, laying the cat on the ground gently.

"Is she on our side again?", asked Stingfly.

Tilian looked at her. "I guess she is", he said quietly. His heartbeat was still fast. She had nearly killed him. But he had known she couldn´t do it. Nevertheless he tried to calm down his breath again.

"Why did you know she wouldn´t kill you?", asked Axel. "And respect, that was quite cool."

"Thanks. It was just a slight feeling she wouldn´t do it. At least I tried", grinned Tilian back. Firekat stood up at a slow pace and looked at the guys.

"But you know I could always kill you."

"Of course I do."

"What´s your plan to escape? You told me you need me."

"That was a lie", said Tilian seriously. "We just wanted you not to be mad at us."

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After a long time of thinking they couldn´t get any idea to escape. Something told them they should hurry up, if Lee wanted something from Tilian and Axel it wouldn´t be good. Nevertheless they sat in the cell, thinking quietly.

Suddenly Rayza looked over his shoulder and through the energy barrier. "Hey, it´s guard number 0154 again!"

At once Stingfly jumped scared into the air and stuck under the ceiling, looking scared around. The other clones just began to laugh, exept Tilian. And Axel, of course. Growling Stingfly came down again, offended he looked away.

"What´s up?", asked Axel.

"Last time guard number 0154 came here he had a can of bugspray...you should have seen Stingfly as he threatened with that spray", laughed Rayza.

"Hey, at least I´m not afraid of sushi-bars!", growled the insect-clone angry. But the others just continued laughing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx meanwhile, at the same time xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Alright, here´s the plan." Lioness bent over a map of the tower. "We´ll meet with the other rebels at this underground station. Then we can get easily under Lee´s tower. When we´re there we clean floor after floor until we´re in Lee´s office. And I bet we´ll find Axel and Tilian on our way."

"Good plan, but how can we take care of the security system?", asked King.

"I already planned this. Quang´s ninjas are real masters in sneaking into buildings. I told them to disactivate the system. Then we can get in."

"Okay, I´ll call the other stations", said King.

"And we others get the weapons!"

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"Aw, see who found new friends", said a voice and came towards the cell. At once everyone stood up, the clones went into fighting position as they saw Lee. He stopped in front of the energy barrier and grinned. "Of course I saw everything on the supervision cameras. Quite interesting way to convince your teammate, Tilian. Respect."

"You don´t even know what respect isss", hissed Tilian back.

"Hard words coming out of your mouth. But I´m not here to discuss with you about respect", replied Lee.

"What then?", asked Axel angry.

Lee laughed shortly. "Now that I have all members of the Mu-Team together again I can finally start with my project. And thanks to you, Axel, I have the original DNA I need for this."

"Project?", asked Rayza.

"You already know about it. I´ll put you five together to get an even stronger being. And when I finally fulfilled its creation I can produce more of it, even whithout you."

"For this you brought us here?"

"Oh, I guess it´s the last time we see us...", grinned Lee.

"What do you mean?", asked Axel distrustful. He didn´t like Lee´s grin.

"For the cloning process I need the original DNA of you all. That means a painful process for you till I have it. And I guess you won´t survive this.." He laughed again.

"You´re insane!", hissed Firekat.

"Oh, I´m not insane. I just try to help the world. And if you excuse me now, I´ll let everything be prepared for the process." Lee left the room in front of the cell and disappeared through a door.

"Alright, if you believe it or not, I have an idea", said Axel as Lee was gone. "We need to get outta here if we wanna stay alive. We can´t wait or hope for Dragon to find us. Now we have to escape on our own."

"And what do you plan?", asked Wrecka.

"See that computer? With it our cell is locked. Wrecka, Rayza, did you already try to shoot lightnings at it?"

"No, not yet.."

"I bet those energy barrier just prevents organisms from escaping or coming in. Not dead material or lightnings. Try to hit that computer!" Wrecka and Rayza shot a lightning at the same time. To their surprise it went through the barrier. It hit the computer, but caused no damage.

"What the...?" Axel stared at the comptuer.

"And what now, you genius?", asked Firekat. Axel touched the wall between them and the other room. No electricity went through it, if he touched the energy barrier an electrical shock would go through him.

"Try to cut that wall", he said to Firekat.

"But that doesn´t work...", she began.

"Do what he says", agreed Tilian. "Then Wrecka and Rayza shoot at it, Stingfly uses his sonic ear bomb and Axel and I will do the rest." Everyone agreed while Firekat still stared at Tilian. "Do it."

She nodded and her claws came out. Then they slided through the wall and just left some scratches. Wrecka and Rayza shot again lightnings at the wall, Stingfly used his bomb and everyone held their hands over their ears. Now big scratches were in the wall. Axel nodded to his clone, at the same time they moved forwards. Axel used his Jo-Lan, Tilian kicked the wall as hard as he could.

As nothing happened Wrecka got angry. He ran towards the wall and got through it.

"Woo! One to nill for the big rhino!", joked Axel. "Now, let´s get outta here!"

**Okaay, here it is, the 13th chappie of my story )) I hope ya really like it, and please leave a review for me!! **


	14. Ready, Set, Go!

Ready, set, go!

"Does anyone know the way?", asked Axel as they stopped behind a corner to catch their breaths.

"Er...no, we thought you knew it", replied Stingfly.

"As if! We were brought here when we were without conscious you bug brain", hissed Tilian. "I´d say we try to blow up this place. Such a chance never comes back! The rebels lived for getting in here, now we have the chance to fulfil their plan."

"I agree", said Firekat.

"We do, too", smiled Wrecka.

"And the best place to begin is the reactor Lee installed...if it blows up there will be a chain reaction and the whole tower is gonna be history", guessed Axel.

"And how shall we get outta here?", asked Rayza.

"You guys leave this place and I´ll destroy the reactor", said Tilian seriously. Slowly Axel got angry.

"Again only you! We had this in the prison, remember? No way am I leaving you here alone!"

"But-"

"No but, I come with you! I have nothing to lose, just like you. So let´s blow up this place", cut Axel his clone off. Tilian just looked at him, then he smiled slightly.

"Thanks."

"And now to you", said Axel to the clones. "Can you take care of Lee? Find him and do whatever you want."

"We will", said Firekat surely. "And...thanks for the help, Manning." Then the clones turned around and ran down the corridor into the other direction. Axel turned to Tilian again and grinned at him, offering his hand.

"Maybe our last fight", he said.

"Maybe." He took Axel´s hand. "But we´ll show him what we can do!"

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The ninjas were now in the tower since some seconds. Lioness and the other rebels were under the hole they had made into the ground under the tower. Suddenly the light that came through the hole vanished. A ninja jumped down to them and told Quang about it. He just nodded. Then all the rebels who stood under that small entrance climbed through it.

Lioness was one of the first ones. After climbing through that hole she stood in a large cellar of the tower. She looked around and used a flashlight to see something coz everything was dark. Then she talked quietly to the groups of rebels who stood around her, expecting a plan. Lioness and Hawk told the groups of at least thirty rebels where to go.

"Alright, we´re the last group. We follow group 4 into the great hall, then take the stairs and clean sector B. We meet with the other group again and don´t take the evelators...we take the stairs up until we reach the roof."

"Now that the ninjas took care of the security system it´s much easier for us to get in", said King. "But something´s still bugging me..."

"And what?", asked Shark.

"No one noticed us yet...And we didn´t meet any security personal."

After saying that they heard suddenly voices of soldiers. Quickly they turned around to face their enemies. "Remember me to kill you for this", said Hawk.

"You don´t need to", joked Shark. "These dudes will."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Any idea where the reactor is?", asked Tilian as they ran down the corridor. When they passed a security computer they always looked at the screens to see if security personal was around. But strangeley no one was there. As they passed another computer Axel stopped.

"The rebels! They are attacking Lee´s tower!"

Tilian stopped, too. He looked at the screens, surprised. "There...it´s Lioness!" The two saw Lioness' group fighting on the floor beneath them. Suddenly there was an explosion and a big hole was blown into the ground. Lioness jumped through it and helped the other rebels to the next floor.

"Go there! Quickly, take care of sector C and D, we meet at the stairs to sector-" She stopped as she looked at who stood behind her. The other rebels didn´t care and followed her orders. But King, Shark and Hawk stopped just like her.

"Axel? Tilian? What are you doing here?", she asked surprised.

"Trying to stop Lee?", guessed Tilian jokingly. Lioness hugged him tightly, then she fell around Axel´s neck and did the same.

"Im so glad to see you guys!", she smiled.

"We thought you were dead...", said Axel.

"We nearly were, but Dragon saved us from that explosion. And we did everything to get in here to free you two."

"Nah, Lioness did everything. She called all the rebels, made an excellent plan and fought even harder than the others", grinned King. "Guess she really missed you."

Lioness blushed as she looked at the two guys in front of her. She stroke her hair out of her face and walked past them to look at the computer behind them. Quickly she typed something in, disactivated the security doors for this sections and turned to the others again. Brightly she smiled at them.

"Alright, King, Shark, Hawk? Go and follow the group to sector C, we three take care of section D", she ordered. The three guys nodded and ran away. Now Lioness looked at Axel and Tilian.

"But we planned to blow up the reactor in this tower..."

"Which is under the roof, close to Lee´s office. That´s our plan, too. Come on!"

They followed her, down the corridor. "We planned to blow up this tower. Then the security in the whole city would be distracted and meanwhile we can lead all the other rebels to the railway station, to get away from here", explained Lioness while running.

"But how do you wanna get outta here? If it blows up we´re all dead!"

"Nope. We set a bomb with a countdown. Then we have ten seconds to get away from the tower. Everyone of us has a parachute in his backpack. We´ll simply jump off the roof."

"And what about us?"

"Don´t worry, I bet someone will be able to carry you."

As they ran around a corner suddenly soldiers stood in front of them. "Looks like we have to deal with those guys the old fashioned way", grinned Axel and went into fighting position, just like Lioness and his clone. Axel ran towards the soldiers, kicked one of them and bent down quickly before a soldier could hit him. Tilian came from behind, jumped and landed with his hands on Axel´s back. Then he kicked the soldiers hardly, turned a backflip and waited for Lioness.

She jumped towards Tilian, landed on his hands. The clone threw her into the air as she jumped. Lioness landed on the shoulders of a soldier, kicked the ones around her and turned a flik-flak to avoid the attack of another one. Axel nodded to Tilian. The two turned flik-flaks at the same time, stopped in front of the soldiers, ducked, jumped and kicked.

Axel turned a backflip, landed with his hands on the shoulders of a soldier behind him and used his own weight to throw him against a group of other enemies.

"Cool move", grinned Tilian. "But this is even better!" Quickly he spat his venom at some soldiers, kicked them and went to the ground to kick their legs. As fast as he could he slided through the legs of one of them and pulled. The soldier fell, Tilian kicked him before he hit the ground.

"The venom doesn´t count", said Axel offended as he ducked under another attack of a soldier. Suddenly three soldiers spat paralyzing venom at the same time. Axel turned a flik-flak and the green venom landed on the ground shortly in front of him.

Lioness came from behind and kicked them, turned a backflip and landed in fighting position. As no soldier moved anymore she relaxed and grinned at the two guys.

"Let´s go!"

Soon they arrived at the stairs to the next floor. With the same strategy they fought with the soldiers, avoided their shots or hand grenades and knocked them out. They met the other group with Shark, Hawk and King again and together they could make it to Lee´s office. The door was locked, so they placed a small bomb in front of it. "Ready...set...go!"

The bomb exploded and the door fell to the ground with a loud sound. In the office stood Lee, grinning at the rebels who came in.

"Congratulations that you made it that far", he grinned.

"Where is Quang, I thought he wanted revenge on Lee?", asked Axel quietly. Lioness shook her head.

"He, Dragon and his ninjas disappeared after we got in here", she replied.

"Give up Lee, it´s all over!", hissed Tilian. But something was wrong. Firekat and the other clones should be here meanwhile, but he couldn´t see them anywhere. Slowly he looked around in that office. Lee noticed this.

"Do you try to find _them_?", he asked. A door in the ground opened and slowly a cage made up of hardlight came out of it. The four other clones crouched in that cage and tried not to touch the walls. Otherwise they would get an electrical shock. Tilian cursed quietly.

"So what now? You destroyed so much...and for what? To stand here and do nothing?", asked Lee, still with that grin in his face. He was sure he would win now. "Don´t you see I´m just trying to improve the world?"

"Improve? You tried to kill us all!", shouted King.

"Only the ones who were against me. And you all are, as far as I remember."

"That´s insane!", yelled Lioness. "We will beat you, here´s no one else left to fight for you!"

"I don´t think ssso", said a voice next to them. There stood a clone. But he wasn´t dressed like a soldier. He only wore a darkgreen jumpsuit. Just like Tilian. Tilian looked at this clone and seemed to recognize him.

"You...?"

The other clone nodded. "My mission is to arrest you and kill the others."

"Didn´t you listen to me? Lee just uses you! You´re just a tool!", shouted Tilian. Now Axel noticed who that clone was. It was the one they had seen in Lee´s lab. They had seen his "birth". And Tilian had talked to him.

"Don´t even try. He won´t listen to you. In contrast to you he only listens to my orders. That´s one of the improvements I took on the newest clones", smiled Lee. "He´s everything you are...and even more."

Now soldiers seemed to appear out of nowhere. They shot at the rebels and out of their guns came thin ropes. Those ropes wrapped around each one of them and gave them electric shocks. Axel tried to move, but got such a shock. So he didn´t even start another try.

"Bring the others away. But let Axel´s team, Axel himself and Tilian here", ordered Lee. The soldiers did what he wanted and brought the other rebels away. The new clone did the same and walked away.

"And you will be the first ones who see my newest creation", said Lee to Axel´s friends. "The clone you have seen is an important part of it."

Some soldiers tied Axel, Tilian and the other clones to a wall. A cable was wrapped around Axel´s left arm, that cable went to Tilian´s arm. And from his arm to Firekat´s, then to Wrecka´s, to Rayza´s and to Stingfly´s arm. The cable went farther, from Stingfly´s arm it went into a big machine that stood next to them at the wall. Lee ordered the clone to come in again.

He came in, went into that machine. Lee closed the door of it and typed in something. He pressed some buttons and activated the machine.

"What are you doing?", asked Lioness who laid on the ground next to her friends. She couldn´t move, just like the others.

Lee turned to her. "In that cable is a special liquid with nano-bots. I´ll inject the bots into each of my first clones, and into Axel too. Then the nanobots with go through their veins and through the whole body to geht their original DNA. Then they go through that cable and put the DNA into this machine, I´ll put them together and focus them on the new clone I made. Then he´ll be a clone made up of all my Mu-Team creations. A clone that can live everywhere, in water, air and on land!"

"Now, that´s insane", said Axel calmly.

"But I guess you won´t survive that process...", said Lee additionally and grinned even more. Scared everyone looked at him. Lee walked over to that machine and pressed a button. Everyone who was tied to the wall felt a small sting, coming from that cable. Axel closed his eyes.

"Our last fight", said Tiilan next to him and tried so smile weakly.

"Our last fight", agreed Axel and looked at him before he felt his power getting weaker.

**Um...guys? Anyone out there? Didn't get any review in the last time... :'( Please leave a review for me! Tell me what you like / dislike on this story! **


	15. Between Life and Death

Between Life and Death

Axel´s view got blurry. And the longer he felt that sting in his arm the more he felt weaker. Meanwhile Tilian tried to get free, he tried to break the chains around his arms that held him on that wall. But he couldn´t. Not even Wrecka could.

Suddenly there was a big explosion. Ninjas appeared out of nowhere and one of them, with white clothes and a dragon on his chest, cut the circuit of that machine. At once it shutted down, the sting went out of Axel´s arm and he was free again. He fell to his knees and tried to stand up. Dragon helped him quickly.

"Thanks", said Axel. "But next time you should come a little earlier."

"Had to deal with some guards here", replied the ninja.

"So now all my clones come back to me?", asked Lee smiling. He looked at Dragon and ignored the ninjas around him that waited for their order to attack. Some of them freed Axel´s friends.

"My master is not very pleased to meet you, Lee", said Dragon. "Nevertheless he came here to have a talk with you."

The circle of ninjas around Lee opened at one place and the ninjas made place for their master who stepped into their circle. Lee looked a bit scared.

"You?! But how did you...?"

"Get free? Oh, that was easy with a little help from my dragon and young Manning here", replied Quang grinning. "And I came here to deal with you."

"I don´t think so", said Lee.

"No? But I waited so long for this moment. Today, exactly 15 years ago you betrayed me. And you betrayed everyone of us. Now I want my revenge."

"Today...15 years ago my dad died", mumbered Axel. He stood up now. Quang had heard him.

"Yes, Sebastian Manning disappeared this day too. Because you, Lee, betrayed me. If you hadn´t have done this young Axel wouldn´t have suffered so much pain while trying to find the truth. Then he would be together with his father now", said Quang, looking straight at Axel.

Axel´s face turned angry. He looked at Lee. "You killed him?!"

Lee looked afraid now. "No, Axel. _I _didn´t kill Sebastian. He was my friend, I would have never tried to get rid of him! Look, I was working on the Chrysalis Project and your father was security agent there. We became good friends, I never wanted to kill him!"

"So why did you betray Quang?" Axel´s muscles strained.

"I wanted to do more than just cloning one super soldier. Dragon here was my first try. No, I wanted to create more clones. But the government didn´t give me enough money..."

"So he came to me. And I gave him the money to continue with his project", finished Quang.

"Your father found out about it. I wanted him to say nothing to the government, it was too riskful for him and for me. But he didn´t listen. Listen, Axel, I wanted to save him! Quang sent his ninjas to destroy your father because he knew too much! I didn´t kill him!" Lee looked at Axel. And Axel looked at Quang now.

"Is that the truth?", asked Axel furiously.

"I´m afraid he is right. Your father knew too much, so he was in the way. But I didn´t kill him."

"Who did then?!"

Quang laughed. "No one did, young Manning. Your father is very much alive", he grinned. Axel´s eyes widened. He felt as if the ground under his feet would disappear. As if he would faint the next moment.

"Alive?" His father was alive? So all the pain he had suffered, all the pain in the last 15 years...the pain, the tears, the sadness...all without sense? He had suffered all this because of nothing? Tears came into his eyes. He didn´t want to believe Quang. "Where is he then?!"

"Na, not that fast", grinned Quang. "I promised you to tell you the truth when I dealed with Lee. No second earlier. We had a deal, remember?"

Axel growled something, but kept quiet. But before Quang could move only an inch towards Lee something jumped and landed in front of the Jo-Lan master. It was the clone that had been trapped in the machine. He had broken out and was now about to fulfil his mission. Killing everyone in his way. Quang smiled and took a step backwards. Tilian jumped between him and the clone.

"Traitor", he hissed furiously. Axel had never seen his clone that furious in the last time. Axel ran towards him to help, but Tilian stopped him. "No way, this is _my_ fight", he growled angry and attacked the clone.

Tilian jumped tried to kick him, but the clone was faster. Much faster. Tilian was too surprised to react in time, the clone avoided his attack, grabbed his leg and kicked him directly into his stomach. Tilian crashed into a wall and fell to his knees. Why was that clone so strong? Quickly he stood up again, ran towards the clone who just stood there and looked emotionless at him, expecting the attack.

As Tilian ran towards him he took a step sidewards so that Tilian passed him simply. As fast as he could he turned a backflip and could manage to kick the clone. But he blocked easily. "Can´t you stand still at least one time?", asked Tilian hissingly and jumped again as the other clone tried to punch him. Tilian landed on the ground again and tried to kick the clone´s legs.

This one just jumped away, kicked, whirled around and punched Tilian hardly. Tilian himself couldn´t block that fast and fell on the ground, struggling to stand up. Blood came out of the corner of his mouth, he wiped it away with his sleeve. For a reason he couldn´t figure out his legs shook badly. Nevertheless he stood up again, struggling not to fall again.

This fight was harder than he had thought. Angry about the clone´s emotionless face he started another attack. The clone expected a kick again, so he ducked. However, Tilian was faster this time. He changed his strategy, went to the ground and kicked the clone´s legs. So instead of a high kick he used a low one. The clone fell, but with a quick roll he was on his feet again, challenging Tilian to continue this senseless fight.

Tilian did the same. He stood there in fighting pose and waited for the clone to attack. Who did at once. He jumped, landed behind Tilian, kicked his back so that Tilian fell on his knees. Then he turned a somersault, landed in front of Tilian again and turned a backflip. He landed with his feet on Tilian´s chest as this one tried to stand up. Tilian landed on his back as the clone jumped again, landed behind him and kicked his back again as Tilian wanted to stand up again.

Weakly Tilian laid on the ground, struggling to stand up again. But he couldn´t. This time the clone grinned slightly. Then he grabbed Tilian´s leg and threw him easily away so that he crashed into the wall. With a quiet hiss of pain Tilian fell on his knees, then he collapsed and laid there on the ground, not moving. Except that his body shook hardly. His face was cramped in pain.

"Traitor", he just said quietly again, forcing his body to stand up. The clone who wanted to go towards Lee again turned around as he saw Tilian tried to stand up. After two tries Tilian could manage not to fall again, he stood with a shaking body, shaking legs and looked terribly weak. As if he died the next moment. But he didn´t want to give up. Not in this life. He didn´t want to be beaten by his own clone.

He would beat this lizard, even though it might cost him his own life. Tilian held his aching shoulder, then he tried to walk forwards. He ignored everyone who looked at him, amazed how hard he tried not to give up.

Lioness ran towards Tilian and tried to help him. "What are you doing? He´ll kill you!", she said quietly. Tilian stared at the clone in front of him and didn´t even look at Lioness.

"Say what! I don´t care..." Tilian closed his eyes in pain, then he tried to stand straight. He ignored the pain in his body completely.

"But I care! Don´t attack him!"

"Who else should fight him? If I can´t beat him no one can"

"You´re as stubborn as Axel", hissed Lioness.

Tilian pushed her away, glancing for part a second at her. He walked straightly towards the clone, his legs shook hardly and he looked as if he collapsed the next moment. But he didn´t. He dragged his body to do what he wanted.

Now the clone grinned. He ran towards Tilian, kicked his chest, kicked his legs away and sent him to the ground in less than five seconds. This time Tilian didn´t stand up. He laid on the ground, his body shook hardly and his face was cramped in pain.

Axel looked at Quang, then he ran to his clone and tried to help him, just like Lioness. Before the clone could attack the three some ninjas took care of him. And to everone´s surprise the other clones, too. Quang just grinned.

"You don´t want this one to fight alone against all my ninjas? I won´t let you win, Lee."

"You silly lizard!", said Axel angry. "He nearly killed you!"

"Yeah...nearly...", coughed Tilian and grinned weakly.

"Don´t fall asleep", warned Lioness. "Not before we´re outta here. Promise, please!"

"Hey, ever seen...seen me sleeping during...my job?", joked the clone and cramped his face in pain.

"At least he still got his terrible humor", said Axel. He stood up. "Take care of him. I´ll deal with that guys."

"Finish them off!", agreed Lioness. "But...careful, okay?"

Axel just grinned at her, then he ran back to Quang and Lee. The clone still fought with the ninjas and the Mu-Team. And the other ninjas tied up Lee. "Quang!", yelled Axel. "Now you have what you wanted, so what´s with my father?!"

Suddenly there was a small explosion. Lee looked scared at a screen of the computers. "The reactor! Someone hit it! It´ll blow apart!" The rebels who had been arrested before came in now.

"We knocked out the guards, but then we saw a lightning that hit the reactor! We have to get outta here!", yelled one of them.

"A lightning?", asked Axel himself. He looked at Rayza who just shrugged his shoulders. But Wrecka tried to look innocent away.

"Hey, THAT clone jumped outta the way, it wasn´t my fault!", he said and pointed at the lizard-clone.

"Outta here, fast!", yelled Axel. The rebels ran towards the large window behind Lee´s desk and shot at the glass. It broke at once, pieces of broken glass rained down while the rebels ran through it. Quickly they ran over a small balcony, then they jumped and opened their parachutes. Quang´s ninjas set some smoke bombs and disappeared in the red smoke, just like Quang, Dragon and Lee.

"Help me!", shouted Lioness. She tried to lift Tilian, but he was too heavy. Axel helped her. King, Shark and Hawk were the only ones left in that office, they had no more time.

"Jump!"

They jumped. Axel tried not to let Tilian fall. Lioness opened the parachute while she held Axel tightly. And Axel held Tilian. But somehow the parachute didn´t stop their fall like it should. Behind them Lee´s tower blew up. Pieces of broken glass flew through the air, past Lioness and the others. They could feel the heat of the flames, but that was now all behind them.

They were in safe. For the moment. They fell still very fast.

"We´re too heavy!", yelled Axel. "We´ll die when we hit the ground with that speed!"

"Any idea?", asked Lioness.

"Let me go", said Axel. Lioness looked shocked at him. "No way!"

He pulled Tilian up to her and tied him to the belt of the parachute so that he couldn´t fall. Lioness wrapped her arms around the clone, just to make sure he wouldn´t fall. Axel prepared to jump.

"Do not!", she shouted at him. "You will die!"

"Better me than you or Tilian", replied Axel seriously and just smiled at her. "If I jump now you have a chance."

"But-"

"No but, Li. We´ll see again", he smiled, then he jumped into the darkness of the night under them.

"AXEL!", yelled Lioness, but too late. He had disappeared in the darkness, meanwhile he could be dead. Tears came into her eyes and she wrapped her arms even tighter around Tilian. She buried her face in his neck and cried quietly. Why did he jump? "Why...?", she asked herself, quietly crying into Tilian´s jumpsuit. The clone himself didn´t notice any of this. He had lost conscious before they had jumped.

As she landed ont he ground she met the other rebels, under them King, Shark and Hawk. They came towards her and helped her laying Tilian on the ground while she losened the belt of the parachute. With tears in her eyes she helped the others to carry Tilian.

"Where´s Ax-man?", asked Shark.

"He won´t come", replied Lioness shortly. They noticed her face and didn´t ask any more questions. They were sure something very bad must have happened to Axel. Maybe he was even dead.

"Now, let´s hurry to the railway station as long as no soldiers are around!", yelled a rebel. They contacted the people who had stayed in their houses during the fight. Old and weak ones, or those who were too afraid to fight Lee. Now all people came out ot the streets, running towards the railway station. Everyone helped the ones who were too weak.

Lioness and King carried Tilian through the streets. One time Lioness looked over her shoulder and saw the burning tower of Lee industries. She wiped the tears out of her face and forced her body to continue. She wanted to give up, Axel was dead now and she felt terribly weak. But for all the others she held on.

**Thanks for the reviews guys )) even though there weren't much :D Anyway, I'm glad at least a few ppl like this story and continue readin'. Please leave a review! Critism is always welcome! ;-)**


	16. The Finale

The Finale

"Alright, everyone into this train!" King led everyone to a platform where a long train stood and waited. A rebel sat in the train and waited for everyone to get in. King and Lioness laid Tilian on a bench on the platform and took care of the others now. While everyone got on the train Shark and Hawk came over to them. Suddenly something white flew past them and landed in front of the four teens.

"Dragon?", asked Hawk.

The white ninja nodded. In his arms laid someone. As Dragon put off his wings Lioness ran towards him. "Axel! But how..?"

"He knew I was beneath you. So he jumped. Could catch him just in time."

Next to Dragon appeared another ninja, one with black clothes and the chinese symbol for tiger on his chest. "Oh, and Quang sent him with me. When Axel wakes up I´ll explain everything to you."

"Let´s get aboard", suggested Shark. "Or the train will leave without us."

On the train they found a compartment that was empty. They opened the door and got in. In the compartment were two benches, Shark, King, Hawk and Lioness sat down on one of them. The ninjas laid Axel and Tilian on the other bench and sat simply on the ground. Then the train left the railway station.

"I can´t believe we made it!", cheered Hawk as they were out of the city.

Axel moaned quietly and sat up slowly as he opened his eyes. He rubbed his aching head and tried to get his orientation back. Happily she fell around his neck. "I´m so glad you´re alive!", she cheered and hugged him tightly.

"Can anyone tell me what happened?", he asked quietly and Lioness sat down next to him.

"Dragon caught you before you hit the ground", explained Lioness. Axel looked around and saw the ninjas. Then he looked at Tilian who still laid next to him.

"Is he...?"

"Nope, he´s still alive, but terribly weak", replied King. "I wonder why he didn´t die yet."

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Till late night no one said a word. Lioness had sit down next to Axel, Tilian´s head laid on her lap while she stroke his cheek gently, deeply in thoughts. Axel looked out of the window, staring at the landscape that passed very quickly. Hawk had left the compartment to find another one with a place to sleep. And in fact. There were three waggons behind that train with beds.

Of course the rebels used them. But Hawk could manage to find four more beds. He, Shark and King went to bed, but Lioness and Axel wanted to stay with Tilian there. And the ninjas didn´t leave as well. They sat down on the bench in opposite of Axel and Lioness.

"You wanted to explain everything to us", remembered Lioness and looked at Dragon. The ninja nodded. He gave Axel an envelope. Axel opened it slowly and pulled a letter out of it. He began to read.

_Axel Manning,_

_as you know Lee betrayed me, fifteen years ago. Your father found out about it, I have to say he is a very good Jo-Lan warrior. He survived that explosion and so I decided to give him another chance. We took care of him and he promised to tell the government not anything about our small argue with Lee. We wanted him to stay fifteen years with us, after this time the happenings are now too old to be punished by government. His duty to stay with us is now fulfilled and he is a free man again. _

_Maybe we will meet again, young Manning, but till then I expect you trained hardly and worked on your techniques. Because I will train as well. Dragon will explain everything else to you, in case you have more questions than I answered. Dragon and Tiger will stay with you. But Dragon will always return to me when I call him._

_Nonetheless, don't begin to assume we're allies now. In fact, it's the complete opposite. Your father was my prisoner. And I just helped you to get what I wanted. Means, next time we meet it is your turn to fight me. _

The letter was not signed. Axel looked at Dragon. "It´s from Quang?" The ninja nodded. "But he said my father is free again. Where is he then?"

Tiger, the ninja next to Dragon, stood up now and bowed deeply to Axel. But he didn´t stand up and stayed in his bowing position. Dragon nodded to Axel. "Remove his mask", he said.

Axel swallowed dryly and with a shaking hand he removed the ninja´s mask. Tiger stood up again and looked at Axel.

"Dad?", he asked quietly and stood up. The ninja nodded.

"I´m so sorry, Axel", he said. Axel fell around his father´s neck and hugged him tightly, as if he never wanted to let him go. Tears came into his eyes and quietly he cried into his father´s shoulder. Sebastian hugged his son back and for a long time they stood there while Axel cried quietly, but happy.

"I...why didn´t you try to escape?", asked Axel and wiped the tears out of his face.

"I couldn´t. They told me they would try to kill you if I escaped", replied Sebastian. "I´m really sorry Axel."

"Doesn´t matter. I got my father back, that´s all I ever wanted", said Axel and smiled. "And what´s with you, Dragon?"

"Like Quang told me, I´ll stay with you. Until he needs me again. But till then..."

"...till then you´re the lost twin brother of my dad", joked Axel and sat down next to Lioness again. Sebastian sat down as well. And Dragon just nodded.

"I guess that´s right."

"So that is your clone?", asked Sebastian, looking at Tilian. "I see Lee improved his techniques. Instead of normal copies he produced mutants. At least people will believe Dragon is my twin."

Tilian opened his eyes slowly. "What...happened?", he asked quietly and sat up."I feel as if I crashed into a thousands of nails." The clone rubbed his head which ached terribly. Just like every other part of his body.

"How do you feel?", asked Lioness.

"Like a puddle."

She rose an eyebrow and everyone looked at him. "What? Can´t a puddle feel terrible too?", he joked. "But I feel better than before."

Lioness hugged him tightly and closed her eyes.

"Just a question...but what are we going to do now? We left that town, yes, but what is our aim?", asked Axel and yawned slightly.

"I don´t know...", replied Lioness.

"We´re heading for a small town far away from here. I already spoke to a friend I have there, he agreed with bringing you guys under there", said Garrett who just came into the compartment. "And by the way, good to see you alive."

"By the way, what´s with Lee?", asked Axel and looked at Dragon and Sebastian.

"My master will deal with him, don´t worry about this", replied the ninja.

"And the other clones? Did they get away in time?"

"Ask them yourself", smiled Garrett. "They´re here, in another compartment. And yeah, they survived the explosion as well. No one is badly hurt or something. All in all our plan worked excellent, nearly everyone survived."

"But...Lee´s guys may chase us. I mean the soldiers who weren´t in the tower", mentioned Tilian. Then he stood up and wanted to leave the compartment.

"Where do you wanna go?", asked Lioness.

Suddenly the train shook hardly, then it stopped. Tilian nearly fell and held on the door to their compartment. As the train stopped shaking he stood up again. "What was that?", he asked and looked around. Quickly Axel looked out of the window.

"Guess these guys wanna have us back", he said and looked at the soldiers outside the train. "Duck!" Something flew through the window as Axel, Lioness, Dragon, Sebastian, Tilian and Garrett ducked quickly and fell to the ground. Garrett was the first one who looked at the small thing that laid now behind him.

"A smoke bomb!", he yelled. Quickly Axel jumped up and grabbed it. As he touched it the bomb set a yellow gas free. As fast as he could he threw it out of the window and tried not to breath in the yellow gas. He felt a little dizzy because of the few gas he had breathed in. Lioness stood up and looked carefully out of the window. Soldiers stood around the train, even two or three helicopters were there.

"They surrounded us!", she said, getting slowly in panic.

"But what do they want from us? Lee is not here!"

"Guess it´s not Lee they want", said Axel while trying to get a clear view again. "They want us, they want everyone in this train."

"What shall we do now?", asked Tilian.

"At the moment...I´m afraid nothing", replied Sebastian quietly.

"Since when is this clone here?", asked Tilian confused and looked at Sebastian.

"He´s no clone", replied Lioness. "He´s Axel´s real father."

"Oh, I knew that." Tilian stood slowly up and looked out of the window. As fast as he could he jumped away from that window, an arrow just missed him about inches.

"Arrows? Are they joking me?!" Carefully he looked out again. Ten or twenty metres in front of their window stood soldiers, some of them with high tech bows. "Now I´m impressed."

"I don´t get it, if they wanna kill us why don´t they blow up this train?", asked Lioness.

"No, they don´t wanna kill us. They want us alive. That arrow..." Garrett looked at it. "If it hits someone a special narkose liquid will be set free. That means this person passes out at once. And this arrow doesn´t get deeper under your skin than just half an inch."

"Great, that makes everyone feel better", said Axel ironic. Carefully he crept over the ground and out of the compartment.

"Where do you wanna go?", asked Dragon.

"Finding the others. If we stay together we can fight easier", he replied and crept away, always avoiding the windows.

"I come with you", said Tilian and followed him.

"But why should they want us?", asked Axel quietly while the two were on the way to the next waggon. As they were about to get into the next waggon suddenly four figures crashed into them.

"Firekat?", asked Axel.

"You? What are you doing here?"

"Where are Hawk, Shark and King?", asked Tilian.

"Behind us", replied the cat.

Suddenly the waggon began to shake again, they heard the sound of helicopters over them. "What the-?" The whole waggon began to fly! "They kidnap the whole train!", shouted Axel and tried to hold on something. But he grabbed Firekat´s tail. Furiously and in pain she roared and jumped on him, her claws on his throat.

"Don´t do that again!", she hissed.

Tilian got an idea. "Firekat, get outta here and cut the ropes around the waggon! As long as we´re not that high the fall won´t hurt us."

Firekat looked at him, but nodded. She jumped out of a window, cut a rope and jumped to the next one. The whole waggon tiped, its end hung in the air while the other end was close to the ground. Everyone fell to that side. "Great idea you lizard", growled Axel as he tried to get Wrecka off him. Tilian who laid next to Axel and under Stingfly and Shark tried to get free too.

"Not my fault when she cuts the ropes in that order", he hissed back.

Firekat cut the last ropes and the waggon fell to the ground again. As it landed hardly it shook but stood again. "Man, ever thought of a diet, dude?", growled Shark and tried to get Wrecka off him. Quickly they got away from each other, standing up with faces full of pain.

"You laid on my feet!", moaned Hawk and looked at King.

"Duck!" At once they all went to the ground as some more arrows flew through the window and bored into the wall in opposite of it. Firekat jumped into the waggon again and pressed her back scared against the wall. She breathed heavily.

"They nearly hit me!", she panted and looked angry at Tilian. "You would be dead now if they did!"

"I know", he replied calmly and sat up. He just grinned at Firekat who glared angry at him. "Calm down", said Tilian. "They won´t kill us. At least that´s what we guess-"

"You guess?! You´re not sure they want us alive?!" Firekat´s tail moved nervously fore- and backwards while she still glared furiously at Tilian who just smiled and tried to calm her down.

"Really, calm down now, we have to keep cool if we wanna-"

"Keep cool?! That´s all you can say?!" Firekat growled furiously, but tried to stay calm. Suddenly the door to the waggon was opened and someone looked at the teens and the mutants lying on the ground.


	17. Revenge of a Traitor

Revenge of a Traitor

A soldier looked at them. Before they could react even more smoke bombs flew into the waggon. But the soldier had a gas mask and just grinned at the teens and clones who passed out because of the yellow gas. The last thing Axel saw before he passed out were even more soldiers running past them into the waggon to get everyone out of it.

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Axel opened his eyes. He didn´t know where he was, as he looked around he saw nothing first. After getting his view clear again he sat up and tried to recognize his surroundings. He was in a large, but dark room. Through a window fell some light into it. That window was blockated by an energy barrier. As he turned around he saw his friends lying there.

Quickly he went over to them. He woke up Lioness, then King, Shark, Hawk, Tilian, Dragon, Sebastian, Garrett, Firekat, Wrecka, Rayza and Stingfly. Tilian stood quickly up and looked around. Firekat did the same.

"I can´t see any doors or something...wait there is one, but I can hear the sound of an energy barrier in it", said Firekat quietly. "That means we´re trapped. The window and the door are closed with energy barriers. I bet even the walls are."

"I still don´t get it...why did the soldiers kidnap us? They had no orders to do so", said Lioness and stood up too.

"That´s right. They wouldn´t attack us without orders", agreed Dragon.

"Oh, they had orders", said a voice. Suddenly the door opened and someone stepped in. The light was turned on and they looked surprised at the clone they had seen in Lee´s office. "Orders from me."

"You?!" Tilian went into fighting position, ready to attack that clone. "So tell me, did Lee give you a name?"

"No, he didn´t. But I guess every name is better than _Tilian_. Or shall I say _Loser_?" The clone grinned.

"Nah, Herbert is even worse", joked Hawk and earned an angry look of everyone, most of Shark.

Tilian just growled angry. "Stop acting as if you were better than me. Now tell me who you are and why you have control over the soldiers!"

The clone walked slowly towards him. "Oh, I _am_ better than you. I don´t have to pretend that. Beside the rare reptile DNA you have I have even more. For example a bit DNA of a rare viper from Australia. For even better agility and faster reflexes. But I don´t have to tell _you_ that I´m faster, do I?"

"Who are you?"

"I´m you. But you already know that. So you really want a name?"

"Yes."

"Invent one, if you like", grinned the clone.

"Let me think..." Tilian paused. "_Traitor_. That would fit to you bad fake of a lizard."

"Lizard is a good one", smirked the clone. "So now that I have a name you wanted to know why I can control the soldiers, right? That´s easy. Lee wanted to turn me into a being made up of the Mu-Team and Axel´s original DNA. His best creation ever, if I may say so. So he gave me control over his troups, he thought I would lead them when I was _finished_. And now they listen to me."

"And why did you kidnap us?"

"I didn´t want to risk to let the citizens escape. Now I have the control over this city. And what´s a city without citizens?" Lizard laughed shortly.

"Citizens? We´re prisoners of this city. As far as I know it´s even forbidden to have children, just to make place for Lee´s clones", replied Tilian. "So why don´t you just kill us?"

"I still need your original DNA to get more clones. That´s why you´re here...so it would be better for you to corporate with me."

"And what if we don´t want to?", asked Tilian challenging.

"Then I have to get your DNA the painful way", replied Lizard. "But of course you could accept my offer. You and I could rule this city together. Think about it. You´re a higher being, just like me. So forget this weak ones and turn to my side."

"Don´t listen to him!", shouted Lioness. Tilian didn´t even look at her.

"You always wanted people who understood you. Now you have the chance to get on my side. We´re all the same, we understand you very well. And we´ll treat you like one of us, not like a mutated clone." Lizard smiled and Tilian seemed to think about his words. "Look at them. They´re lesser beings. They don´t know how you feel, what you desire. They don´t know what it feels like to live your life. To feel your pain. And to see the world with your eyes."

Tilian looked at him, his muscles strained, but he hesitated with attacking Lizard. He shuddered.

"None of them knows what you feel like in their world. That´s why I offer you to come into our world. Where everyone will treat you like one of us. _They_ just think of you as a big lizard. Look at them. Axel, for example, tried to kill you so often and now you really believe he´s your friend? He still hates you. Just like the others. And your so called Mu-Team friends cannot understand you too. They don´t know what it´s like to share reptile DNA. They see this world even more different than we do."

Tilian still stared at Lizard. He didn´t know what to do, who to trust. This clone was right. None of his friends knew how he really felt. But he didn´t know if Lizard´s promises would be kept. He stood now between two sides. And had to make a decision.

"I offer you this only one time. Decide and choose my side and you´ll be one of us. But choose their side and suffer with them. It´s your move." Lizard grinned. And Tilian shook. He didn´t know what to do.

"Don´t listen to him!", shouted Lioness again.

Tilian closed his eyes. "He is right. You don´t know how I feel", he began. "But he doesn´t know what it´s like to be together with friends. And that´s why I just can´t betray you." He stared at Lizard again. "I´ll suffer with them, no matter what´s coming."

Lizard looked a bit disappointed. "It´s your move." Then he turned around and walked out of the door again. Tilian didn´t turn to his friends. He just sank to his knees and stared at the ground, his body shook a little. Lioness came over to him and laid her arm around his shoulders. She looked into his face.

"You chose right", she said quietly. Tilian shook his head.

"No. Leave me", he answered simply. Lioness looked at him with a sad look, but nodded. Then she walked back to her friends and sat down on the ground again, looking at Tilian.

"You shouldn´t worry", said Firekat while licking her hands. "He always tried to get attention. He should be simply ignored." Lioness didn´t reply. She just looked at Tilian who was still on his knees, staring at the ground.

"Any ideas to escape?", asked King after some time. Everyone shook his head. King looked at Axel´s clone. "Tilian?" He didn´t reply. As if he couldn´t hear what happened around him.

"Alright then...does really no one have an idea?"

Lioness looked at Axel. "Try to talk to him", she said and looked at Tilian. "You´re someone like his best friend. And he´s your clone."

"What´s that for a reason? I guess he won´t listen to anyone", replied Axel. Lioness looked at him. "Please", she whispered. Axel moaned annoyed and stood up to walk over to Tilian. He knelt down next to him, placing his hand on the clone´s shoulder.

"Hey, um...maybe it´s not my business, but what´s bugging you?", he asked. Tilian breathed out slowly and looked at Axel.

"What he said...he´s not so wrong", he began. "None of you ever knew how I felt. What I wanted. Or tried to be."

"So why didn´t you accept his offer?"

Tilian laughed ironic. "You´re really asking that?"

"You thought about accepting it. So there was something true on it." As Tilian didn´t reply Axel sighed. "Of course we can´t know how you feel. We can just try. And we already do. You´re our friend. And no one knows how _I _really feel. And no one can. That´s the same with you. We can´t know how you feel if you don´t tell us. But we try to understand you. That´s all we can do. Trying."

"You should hear yourself. That emotion-stuff sounds really weird", said Tilian and grinned weakly. "But it helps. Thanks."

"So any ideas to escape?"

"You won´t believe me, but yes, I have a plan", grinned Tilian and stood up, offering Axel his hand to help him up.

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"So you thought about my offer?", asked Lizard as he stepped into the room. Meanwhile he wore a black jumpsuit with darkgreen and orange parts. But his face looked still exactly like Tilian´s.

Tilian who had sit together with his friends stood up now. "Yeah, I thought about it."

"And what do you say?"

"Did you know insects can stick to walls?", asked Tilian. Lizard seemed to be confused about this. Suddenly Stingfly let go of the ceiling and jumped. He landed on Lizard´s shoulders and pulled him to the ground. The clone struggled to get free again and kicked Stingfly away. But he was free for only part a second. At once everyone in this room jumped onto Lizard. Except Garrett.

Wrecka, King, Shark and Lioness grabbed the clone´s arms while Tilian, Axel, Rayza and Firekat took his legs. Stingfly, Dragon and Sebastian helped them. Hawk tied a piece of clothes around Lizard´s mouth so that he couldn´t scream for help.

"A clever plan", said a voice behind them. They whirled around. There stood another clone who looked exactly like Tilian. "But not very good. He´s just a hologramme."

"Why can we touch him?", asked Hawk confused.

Lizard pushed a button on a remote control. The clone under the team disappeared at once. "Improved technology, of course", he said. "Now, I count this as a no." He looked at Tilian.

"This is the first and only time I´ll say that you´re right", grinned Tilian and folded his arms.

"I already knew you would say no. Nevertheless I need you for my plan."

"Plan? What plan?"

"To make _me_ even stronger. Lee tried the same with you and Axel, remember? But I´m not really Axel´s clone. I am your clone. So I need your original DNA to strengthen me. But I guess you won´t come with me voluntary", said the clone.

"If you want him you have to go through us", said Lioness and went in front of Tilian into fighting position. Just like Axel and the guys, Dragon, Sebastian and the clones. "Eleven against you could be a big disadvantage for you, don´t you think so?"

Lizard laughed. "No, that´s no disadvantage. Come on, attack me if you want."

Lioness did. She ran towards him and tried to hit him with a kick. But the clone grabbed her foot and threw her easily away. Now Hawk and King came from behind, Lizard took a step sidewards and the two missed. Axel tried to land a kick and whirled around, but Lizard ducked, kicked him hardly and punched him so that he fell on the ground. Dragon and Sebastian attacked at the same time.

They turned a flik-flak at the same moment, landed behind Lizard and Dragon tried a low kick while Sebastian did a high one. The clone blocked both and turned a backlfip to land behind Shark who started an attack. He kicked his back, turned a somersault and landed on Lioness' shoulders. He jumped again,Lioness fell to her knees. Axel attempted to hit him, but Lizard kicked him again, just like King.

Then the clone punched Dragon into his stomach, turned a flip and kicked the ninja´s back. But Lizard didn´t land on the ground, he landed on Hawk´s shoulders and kicked him. As he landed on the ground Sebastian tried a punch, but the clone was faster. He placed his hands on Sebastian´s arm and whirled around to kick him. Then he turned a backflip, landed behind Lioness and Shark and kicked them both.

Now Firekat ran towards him, her claws came out and she tried to cut the clone. He avoided her attack, grabbed her tail and threw her against Hawk who stood up again. Both fell to the ground. Lizard simply jumped as Wrecka wanted to hit him with his horn. The clone landed on his hands, turned a flik-flak backwards and kicked Rayza without even looking around.

Axel came from behind and kicked Lizard´s legs. Then Stingfly jumped onto him and tried a punch, but again Lizard was faster. He grabbed Stingfly and threw him against Axel. Sebastian was on his feet again and used the Jo-Lan tiger set to sent Lizard against the wall. Surprised about the Jo-Lan energy Lizard couldn´t block. He landed on his feet.

"He´s too strong", panted Axel. The fight cost him a lot of energy. Just like everyone else. But Lizard didn´t seem to get tired.

"Wait till I tell you to use your Jo-Lan!", yelled Tilian and ran past them towards his clone. Lizard grinned, jumped out of the way, kicked Tilian. Tilian blocked hardly, already knowing about the clone´s strength. He jumped, kicked two times and could land a hit on Lizard. Grinning he punched him, ducked under a kick, blocked another attack and kicked again.

"Now!" At once the three Jo-Lan warriors ran towards Lizard. "Ryoko Jo-Lan!", they yelled at the same time and the clone crashed hardly into a wall. Tilian grinned brightly, like the others.

"Enough of thisss", hissed Lizard angry. Soldiers came in and surrounded the team.

"Too afraid to lose?", asked Tilian and folded his arms in front of his chest.

"No, I´m too afraid that you may get hurt. Only your healthy DNA is worth something."

"So what if I commit suicide now? Or what if I ask Firekat to kill me? She´d do it every time", asked Tilian challenging.

"You won´t. And she won´t, too. Because she can´t. You mean too much to her. And how would you want to commit suicide? Swallowing your own venom? You know as well as I do that you´re immune to it."

"At least a try", said Tilian emotionless.

"Get him", ordered Lizard. The soldiers nodded and grabbed Tilian. To their surprise he didn´t even try to escape. Then they pulled him out of the room, Lizard followed them. One last time he grinned at the group in the room, then he left it as well.

"We can´t let him do this to Tilian!" Lioness tried to get after them, but Axel held her back.

"We can´t. We can´t follow them, the energy barrier surrounds the whole room", he said quietly and looked at Lioness.

**Thanks for reading this and to everyone who reviewed! Next chap coming soon! **


	18. DesoxyriboNucleicAcid

**D**esoxyribo**N**ucleic**A**cid

Tilian was brought into a lab. On his way he had struggled to get free, but was forced to give up as they threatened to kill the others. He knew they had the abilities to do it. So he didn't want to risk the others' lives.

Now he recognized where he was. Lizard´s hiding place was the mall of Landmark City. He had built an own part for his labs. Two soldiers put off Tilian´s shirt wrapped something around his right arm that looked like a black bandage. But then a needle came out of it and stang into his arm. He winced in pain, however, he said nothing.

"That´s just in case you try to escape. This needle injects you a liquid that makes you ten times weaker. That means you have enough power left to walk, but not enough to escape", explained Lizard who walked towards a computer. To the left and to the right of this computer stood a container made up of glass. Cables went from that containers to the computer.

Tilian felt that he grew weaker. And strangely dizzy. Lizard just grinned as he noticed that. "Don´t worry, that´s quite normal. When you´re in that container it will fill with a special liquid. That allows me to get your power out of you, then it will be put into me. And I don´t know if you will ever be able to do something..."

"You´re just like Lee, totally insane", said Tilian quietly. "You should know that you could get my original Desoxyribonucleicacid much easier."

"So you know what DNA means? I´m impressed", smiled Lizard evilly.

"Of course. That says this computer-screen", said Tilian and looked sarcastic at his clone. "And now you wanna tell me you can handle with that machine like Lee? As if. What do you know about cloning?"

"Oh, not much about cloning, but much more about what is going to take place", replied the clone.

"You´re naiv", hissed Tilian.

"Just like you", grinned Lizard. He nodded to two soldiers who grabbed Tilian and opened one of the containers. They placed him in it and closed it quickly. "This glass is too strong for your current strength. You could break it with your full strenght perhaps, but not now. Now it´s too late for you."

"If you think so", said Tilian annoyed and rolled his eyes. "You sound worse than Lee, do you know that?"

Instead of replying Lizard pressed a button and suddenly Tilian´s container filled with water that was a bit green. "And how shall I breath you genius?", asked Tilian sarcastic. Lizard looked up.

"Who said anything of breathing?" He grinned. "No, since your creation you have the rare quality to be under water without breathing. This machine sends short and not dangerous electrical shocks through the water every five seconds to let you alive. Your body recognizes that electrical shocks and knows it has to fall into a kind of koma. In that koma nothing will happen to you. But if that shocks stop...you will simply die coz your body shuts down."

"Interesting", growled Tilian shortly. The greenish water reached now his chest. Slowly he got in panic. The water reached his chin and he rose his head to breath. But soon it reached his nose, then the whole container was filled with water. He tried to hold his breath. Not for long. He breathed out slowly and as he tried to breath in he felt strangely giddy.

Like Lizard said his body began to fall into a kind of koma. Soon he couldn´t notice anymore what happened around him and fell finally into that koma.

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"We have to do something, he will hurt him!" Lioness looked desperated at the door. "We must get outta here!"

"What if we try with Jo-Lan?", suggested Axel. Sebastian and Dragon nodded. "Let´s hope that works."

The three Jo-Lan warriors ran towards the wall with the door and sent a giantic energy wave towards it. To their surprise it worked and the wall broke, but as the dust disappeared they looked at the energy barrier. Behind it they could see another hall. And they knew where they were. In the mall of Landmark City.

"Sorry Li...we can´t get away that barrier."

"You don´t have to get it away", smiled Rayza. "You just have to trick it out."

"And how?"

"Wrecka, get that metal bar", ordered Shark´s clone.

"Of course! If we get the electricity through that metal bar and lead it back to the barrier we have a hole in it!" Garrett smiled. "That could work. So Wrecka, form a half circle out of this metal bar."

Wrecka did. Then he gave it to Rayza. "I can stand at least a little electricity. So this won´t hurt...I hope..." He laid the half circle on the ground in front of the barrier. Carefully he pushed both ends into the barrier. And their plan worked. A hole appeared in that barrier in the half circle.

"Awesome!"

Now the teens, clones and ninjas could get through the barrier. "Where to go?", asked Shark.

Firekat sniffed and tried to find Tilian´s smell somewhere in the air. She grinned as she found it. "Those reptiles smell real bad. At least one useful quality now", she smirked and led the group through the mall. She stopped in front of a security door and nodded. "He´s definately in there."

King and Wrecka nodded to each other, then they ran towards the door and tried to break it open. As it didn´t work the three Jo-Lan warriors used a giantic energy wave and with Firekat´s claws they could finally manage to break the door open. Behind it they found a lot of soldiers. And behind the row of soldiers they saw a machine. Two containers stood there, between them was a computer.

In both containers were clones. But the group didn´t know who the real Tilian was.

"Take care of the soldiers, I´ll get Tilian!", yelled Lioness and ran towards the computer. Before any soldier could attack her the clones took care of them. Meanwhile the guys fought with them, Dragon and Sebastian used their Jo-Lan to fight, just like Axel.

Lioness reached the computer and looked at the screen. Then she looked at the clone on the right side, and at the one on the left side. "Who´s the right one...?", she asked herself while trying to break the security code for shutting down the computer. "King! I need your help!", she yelled. King could manage to get over to her and looked at the computer.

"Can you break the code?"

"Let me see...It´ll take some time, you try to get the soldiers away from here", replied King. Lioness nodded and ran into the fight. Next to Axel she stopped and went into fighting position.

"Ready?", he asked.

"As ready as I´ve never been before", she answered. Then Axel kicked a soldier and bent down so that Lioness could land with her hands on his back. She kicked the next soldier and turned a backflip, landing on Axel´s shoulders. Then she turned another backflip and kicked some soldiers behind him. Axel himself used his Jo-Lan to blast a lot of the enemies out of the way.

With Dragon and Sebastian they beat a lot of soldiers very quickly. Nevertheless there came always more of them. Before Lioness could attack some more soldiers King called her to him. She ran to him and expected no good news as she looked into his face.

"I still don´t know who the real one is. I can shut down the containers one after one, but there´s a limit of half an hour between the shut downs. So if I shut down the right one for example we have to wait half an hour until we can open the other one. Do you recognize him?", he asked.

Lioness looked at the two clones. She tried hardly to recognize Tilian. "It´s...this one, I guess", she said and pointed at the right one. "Open this container." King nodded and began to shut down the right container. Slowly the water floated out of it and the clone in it stood there, not moving or even opening his eyes. King opened the container and Lioness caught the clone as he collapsed.

She laid the wet clone on the ground and tried to wake him up. "Tilian! Wake up!", she yelled and slapped his face. Worried that he didn´t breath she laid her head on his chest and listened. His heartbeat was gone. "He´s dead! He doesn´t breath!", said Lioness terrified. Quickly she tried to reanimate him with a kiss of life. Then she listened again. Nothing. So she tried another time.

After doing so for three times he began to cough and breathed again. "Tilian?", she asked carefully. The clone coughed and looked at her. Then he grinned.

"The real and only one", he smirked. "And we should do that kissing thing more often."

"It is you!" Lioness fell happily around his neck and hugged him tightly. Meanwhile King losened that black bandage around Tilian´s right arm. Shark ran over to them.

"Ax-man says we should leave this place, more soldier dudes are coming around", he said breathless. "Oh, hey dude", he smirked as he saw Tilian. Then he turned to Lioness again. "Dragon suggests to get outta here through the main entrance, that´s shorter. We just have to pass some old stores and Lizard´s lab."

"Okay guys, let´s get outta here!", yelled Axel. Dragon led the group. Lioness and King carried Tilian who was too weak to walk. They ran through a lab with a lot of small canisters. While running Axel could see that in those canisters were small embryos which didn´t look like small children yet. Their stadium was too early. But the longer they ran through that lab the older seemed the embryos to be.

One time they even passed a small glass container in which a young baby laid, it had green and scaly skin and a lot of cables connected it with a computer next to the container.

Axel ignored all that. Everyone ran past the containers, through the lab. Finally they reached its end and ran through a pet shop. Even here were some animals left, mostly reptiles.

"Guess Lee brought them here for his experiments", guessed King and looked sadly at all the reptiles. Geckos, snakes, small crocodiles and chameleons. Tilian smiled weakly and hissed something. The reptiles seemed to understand this.

"Open their cages", he told King. While King did what Tilian had told him Axel helped Lioness to carry the clone. After King had opened the cages Tilian hissed something again and the reptiles followed them.

"They´ll follow you now, no matter what comes", he said quietly. King smiled brightly and took the chameleons on his shoulder because they were too slowly. The other reptiles ran after him, quietly hissing.

As they were out of the mall suddenly the lab exploded. "I set a bomb before we left", said King. "With a countdown of 3 minutes. Enough time for us to escape."

"Great idea", grinned Hawk.

The thirteen of them hid in a half destroyed house. They knew that in its cellar had been a rebel station, so they went downstairs. And in fact: There they found some old matresses and laid Tilian on one of them. Meanwhile Wrecka and Dragon locked the door to the cellar stairs tightly and blockated it with a wardrobe.

"None should find us here", said Stingfly relieved and sat down on an armchair. Axel sat down on the ground, close to Lioness who was next to Tilian´s matress. He looked at everyone in that room. Rayza, Dragon, Sebastian and Hawk sat down on an old couch. Garrett who had been carried by Wrecka because his wheelchair was gone sat on the couch too. Firekat crouched on the floor and yawned quietly.

Wrecka leaned against a wall, King sat down on bottom of the stairs. Shark sat down next to him, in his arms a bundle of clothes. He showed it King who just smiled. Even the reptiles around him looked at it and hissed quietly.

"What is it Shark?", asked Lioness.

"Found him in the lab...I just couldn´t let little dude there", said Shark and went over to Lioness. He gave her the small bundle. In it laid the baby from the lab. Lioness smiled brightly, just like Axel who looked at it too.

"He´s cute, isn´t he?"

Tilian sat up and looked at the small green baby. Then he started laughing. He laughed so hardly that it nearly ached. While laughing he laid on that matress again, trying to stop. The others looked at him. Obviously confused.

"Something wrong?", asked Rayza.

Tilian laughed and nodded. "Shark, HE is no boy. It´s a girl!", laughed the clone. He calmed down. "Believe me! It´s a girl." He took the small bundle and took the baby out of the clothes. "You see?"

Shark took the baby again and got a closer look at it, now he saw it. "Ohhhh...alright, then it´s a dudette", he smirked embarassed. Now everyone else laughed, too. "And that she belongs to your species you surely know what to do with her", said Shark and gave the baby to Tilian again who stopped laughing. The others laughed even harder as they looked at his face.

"No way", he said. "You brought her here." He gave it back to Shark.

"But you´re kinda her father coz Lee used your DNA", mentioned Hawk and Shark gave it back to Tilian.

"Father? DNA is something different. Moreover it´s Axel´s DNA", said Tilian offended and gave it to Axel. Shark shook his head.

"Nope dude, found this note next to the computer", he grinned and gave Tilian the small piece of paper. He read it with widened eyes.

"I´ll kill Lee for this!", he growled. Axel took the note. And laughed.

"You´re really her father!" Axel laughed so hard, he couldn´t stop. While holding his belly Hawk took the note and read it. He started laughing as well. Confused about this Lioness took the note and read it. She started grinning brightly while Tilian just looked offended away, the baby still in his arms.

"What does it say?", asked Garrett curiously.

Lioness grinned. "It says that Lee took some of Tilian´s genetic material five years ago. He froze it and this days he used it...well, to test if Tilian´s species is able to reproduce. Sounds weird, but the note says so."

Garrett understood and read the note. "I see..." He grinned brightly. "He put your inheritance material into a synthetic egg cell. With that high technology he could manage to "create" your...well...daughter", explained Garrett. "That synthetic egg cell had the same qualities like a real one. The chromosomes-" He stopped as he saw everyone looked at him, totally confused.

"Ahem..sorry guys. What I wanted to say is that this synthetic one was like a real one. No difference. Exept that it was synthetic. So everything was like...as if Tilian and a reptile-clone-woman-"

"No details Garrett", interrupted Hawk. "Just that imagination manages to get me sick."

"I can´t believe this." Tilian laid on the matress, rubbing his aching head.

"Why not?", asked Axel smiling.

"Hello?! I´m a clone! I´m not supposed to have children, family or even friends!", snapped Tilian. "Lee is just so insane and sick..."

"Maybe we should try to get some sleep. Guess no soldiers will find us here. So we can rest", suggested Lioness. Everyone agreed. And soon they laid down to get at least one night some rest. And the others could convince Tilian of taking the baby. Finally he agreed and with the small girl in his arms he fell asleep late that night.


	19. After All

After All?

The next morning everyone woke up because the baby began to scream. Especially Firekat couldn´t stand that sound. It was much louder for her than for everyone else. Alarmed Tilian woke up and noticed that it was the baby that caused his noise. This made his terrible mood even worse. His head ached, his right arm did too, every part of his body was filled with pain and now this. He was glad that he was alive.

"I guess she´s hungry", said Axel and looked at the small girl. Then he looked at Tilian.

"Hey, I have no idea about this!", said the clone and looked offended. "Lioness, don´t you have an idea? You´re a girl..."

"And?" She rose an eyebrow.

"Maybe you have an idea", said Tilian. "What she could eat or something."

"I have an idea", grinned King. "Seafood-sticks."

At once the Alpha Teens looked as if they got terribly sick. King took a stick out of his pocket and gave it to the baby. And to everyone´s surprise she looked happy and ate it.

"Seafood?" Firekat´s interest was woken. King grinned and threw a stick to her. She caught it and tasted it. At once she spat the green stuff out and coughed terribly. Just as Shark patted on her back she could manage to stop coughing.

"Anyone else?", asked King smiling and looked around. Everyone rejected this suggestion at once. Even the clones. After seeing what had happened to Firekat they were scared of this seafood now.

"At least one of us likes it", grinned King and sat down on a matress.

"Does anyone know the time?", yawned Hawk.

"4am", replied Sebastian.

"Hey, um...can´t we try to sleep at least three more hours? Getting up that early is suicide", moaned Rayza.

"Agreed dude", yawned Shark.

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At about seven in the morning someone came into that cellar. It was Dragon. "I finally found-" He stopped as he saw everyone was asleep again. King laid on another matress under the stairs, Tilian had the other one, in his arms laid still the baby. Firekat was sleeping like a cat on the ground, Garrett, Hawk, Rayza, Shark and Stingfly were on a couch. Wrecka slept in the armchair. Axel and Lioness laid on the ground, close to each other. Sebastian was already awake and smiled at his clone.

"Don´t wake them up. Not yet", he whispered. Dragon nodded.

"I finally found the place where the other rebels are. As you know they didn´t bring them to the mall. They are caught in some buildings southern from here", whispered Dragon. Sebastian nodded.

"Any defensions?"

"Actually not much. The attack on the tower and the mall weakened the soldiers a lot. It seems that Lizard didn´t survive our visit. The soldiers still follow his last orders to prevent the rebels from getting control over the city. They simply guard them. But if we can free them we could win the fight against the soldiers."

"Any ideas how much there are?"

"Not more than 700", replied Dragon. "The other 200 that are still alive are all over the city. Moreover I found some weapons in the different headquarters. Tagswords and Tagblasters." He threw a backpack to Sebastian who caught it and looked into it.

"Cool", he smiled.

Dragon bowed to him deeply. "It is an honour for me to be your clone", he said. Sebastian stood up and bowed to him too.

"And it´s an honour to me to know you."

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Later everyone except Tilian woke up again. Lioness yawned quietly and looked shortly at the clone. Something was wrong. Something missed. "Where is the baby?", she asked suddenly. Axel sat up and looked at Tilian too. The baby wasn´t in his arms anymore. It was gone.

"Just by the way...did you notice he pulls faces when he´s asleep?", asked Axel and pointed at Tilian. Lioness grinned brightly.

"You mean just like you?"

"I was just asking", defended Axel himself and stood up to try to find that baby. Meanwhile Lioness woke Tilian up. He opened his eyes and looked at her, then he yawned shortly.

"Something wrong?", he asked as he noticed her face.

"Where is the baby?", asked Lioness. Tilian rose an eyebrow.

"She´s gone?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, cool", he replied shortly and turned his back to her to continue sleeping. Lioness stared at him. He didn´t care about this? She grabbed his shoulders and turned him to her again.

"You don´t care?"

"Why should I?", asked the clone and closed his eyes again.

Lioness got angry. She shook him again, but he simply ignored her. Suddenly she got an idea and smirked, bent over his head so that her face was close to his one.

"Soldiers around!", she yelled into his ear. Alarmed he jumped to his feet, directly into fighting position. Lioness grinned when she saw his confused face.

"Finally you're awake. You should really go and search her!"

He shook vehemently his head. "Normally she would have never seen me in her whole life. So why should I take care of her now? Because Shark brought her here? No way!"

"But she´s-"

"I know what she is! You don´t have to tell me. It isn´t my duty to look after her." Tilian stood up and headed for the stairs. Suddenly Sebastian came down the stairs, in his arms was the small girl.

"I gave her something to eat. She´s tired now", he said and wanted to give the sleeping baby to Tilian now. Tilian himself glanced at her shortly, then he looked angry at Sebastian and went upstairs, leaving everyone behind.

"What´s wrong?", he asked.

Lioness stood up and took the baby. "He´s kinda in a bad mood", she replied and sat down on the matress.

Dragon cleared his throat. "Now, maybe we should work on a plan to free the other rebels", he interrupted. Everyone agreed.

"But quietly", said Firekat pleadingly. "Otherwise this thing will scream again."

"While sneaking through a soldier headquarter I found this map of their stations", began the ninja and opened a large map. He stuck it to the wall and fixed it with shuriken. "The stations are marked with red. The next bigger one is in this part of the city. And I bet this is the only place where the rebels could be."

"But what if they separated the rebels and brought them to different stations?", interrupted Axel while he studied the map.

"I guess the soldiers didn´t think of that. They brought the rebels to one place, that´s much easier", guessed King.

"Right. That´s why I bet they are there. Those buildings are large enough to bring all of them under. Now, the soldiers are heavily weakened and not much of them are around. The cloning lab in the tower was destroyed, they don´t get more clone-soldiers to help them. They are without a leader, and that´s why they are the perfect victims at the moment", said Sebastian.

"But if you ask me they won´t stay long without a leader", meant Garrett. "They will choose one soon coz they know they´re weaker without orders from someone who leads them."

"That´s why we have to react fast." Axel crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Aren´t there a lot of guards?", asked Stingfly.

"No, buzz boy, they will let us in without even asking", spat Firekat ironic. "Of course there are guards!"

"Calm down kitty, I was just asking!"

Suddenly the baby began to scream. Everyone glared at Stingfly. "Great, now you woke her up!" He looked innocent away.

"Not my fault."

"Try to distract her or something", suggested Rayza. While the clones tried to make the baby shutting up the others turned to the map again. Garrett smiled.

"With that new Tagblasters and Tagswords Dragon brought us we´ll be very well prepared. I could configurate the Tagswords so that they´ll cut even through thick metal walls. Just give me some tools and one day time and it´s done."

"Tools? What tools do you have, your wheelchair is gone and at the moment all we have is just..well, a hammer", said King and looked at the old tool that laid on the ground.

"No prob. Dragon brought me everything I need", grinned Garrett and took the backpack with the weapons to start his work. Lioness looked over to the clones. And could hardly oppress a laugh.

Firekat sat in front of the baby and moved her tail fore- and backwards. The small girl seemed to be excited by the tail and watched it interested, she smiled brightly and laughed. Firekat just ignored her and continued licking her claws. But she knew the baby liked the tail, so she just kept on moving it.

"One problem solved", grinned Axel. "Now, what´s with our offended lizard?"

"Don´t know where he is", replied Lioness. "But I guess at the moment he doesn´t want to talk to anyone."

"Guess that was all a little too much for him. The fight, the happenings in the train, that experiment in the mall...and now he even got a daughter. And all in one night, I have to say. That would stress even me." Axel sat down on the couch.

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Tilian sat alone on the roof. Far away he saw some helicopters over the city, they tried to find some more rebels perhaps. But he didn´t care. At the moment the soldiers were too busy with keeping the rebels under their control. And with getting the control over the city again. They concentrated their power on only one part of the city. They even stopped with making the CP circle around the city smaller.

So the part where the Alpha Teens, the Mu-Team, Dragon, Sebastian and Garrett hid was complete empty. Not even one soldier was around. As far as Tilian knew they were all in that part where the helicopters were now.

"You shouldn´t sit here and pity yourself", said a voice behind him. Tilian turned around. Axel stood there and leaned against the chimney. He smiled slightly as he looked at Tilian.

"Who said I pity myself?", asked Tilian and looked at the city again.

"No one", replied Axel and sat down next to his clone. "Did you notice that everytime you freak out I´m coming and talk to you?" Axel smiled. "Coz none else wants to. Not even Lioness. So I have to do it."

"You have to do nothing. You could simply walk away and leave me here."

"She´s cute, isn´t she?", asked Axel. Tilian just rose an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"Liz", replied Axel. "She´s really cute if she doesn´t scream."

"So that´s her name? Liz?" Tilian laughed shortly but ironic. "You didn´t come up with something better?"

"You don´t like it?"

"I won´t look after her if you mean that. And if you want you can keep her, I don´t want that thing", said Tilian instead of a reply.

"You just don´t know what you want. First you tell me all the time you want to be one of us, with a family and friends and so on. You already have friends. Now you have the chance of a family. So why do you throw it away?" Axel looked at the city. The early morning sun let the city look peaceful and quiet. It hid the true danger behind the houses.

"I am a clone! That dream was only a dream. And dreams should stay dreams, not anything more."

"You´re ignorant", growled Axel. "You could at least try. Think a bit. She would have died in that explosion. And now you reject her? She´s _your_ daughter, that´s a thought you have to get used to."

"Normally she would have never seen me in her whole life", said Tilian. "What would you do? What would you do if someone comes around and gives you a small baby, telling you _Hi, this is your daughter, now take care of her_!"

"I would give her at least a chance to live with her father. I know on my own how hard this is without a father, so you should do what´s best for her, not for you." Axel stood up. "You can run away after we freed the rebels, you can leave her with us, but I tell you: We will take care of her as if she was our own daughter. We will give her a chance. The chance you don´t want to give her."

Axel walked away. On his way to the stairs he met Lioness and stopped her. "Try to talk to him. He doesn´t want to listen to me", he said shortly and walked past her. Lioness looked at Axel until he was gone. Then she looked up the stairs and went to the roof.


	20. Preparing for the battle

Preparing for the Battle

On the roof Lioness found Tilian sitting on the edge. He stared at the city and seemed to be deeply in thoughts. She walked over to him and sat down next to him. "So what do you want?", he asked a bit annoyed but didn´t look at her.

"I just want to know why you don´t want to take care of her", said Lioness simply.

"Coz I don´t want to", replied the clone.

"That´s no reason", growled Lioness.

"So? That´s the only reason why."

Silence. No one said a word. The both of them looked at the city, seeing the helicopters flying through the sky over the houses far away from them. Slowly Lioness laid her hand on Tilian´s. He looked at her. And smiled slightly.

"Meanwhile", he began. "I got used to this thought of being father."

"We´ll all help you, wherever we can. You´ll never be alone with her", replied Lioness and smiled slightly. "Moreover she´s just so cute...if she´s not that loud. She has got your eyes..."

Tilian laughed. "Whose eyes should she else have? Of that synthetic thing? Wow, guess she could see much then."

"Idiot", laughed Lioness and punched his arm jokingly. "I´m making a compliment and you make a joke out of it."

"Oh, that was a compliment? Next time you should warn me. Beware of strange compliments."

"Strange?"

"Guess you´re the only one who likes reptile eyes", replied Tilian and oppressed a laugh. "And the first one who made a compliment on them. Wait, you´re surely the first and only one."

"You´re weird", said Lioness jokingly and grinned.

"Nope. Axel is weird. I´m just his copy", smirked Tilian. Lioness stood up and wanted to leave. Quickly Tilian stood up, too.

"Hey, did I say something wrong?"

"No, but I have to go back. The others wanted to discuss the plan for the attack now", she said and headed for the stairs. Tilian took her hand and held her back. Lioness turned to him and looked straight into his face.

"One last thing", he said.

Lioness looked asking at him. "That is?"

Tilian hesitated. Suddenly his courage was gone. _Kiss her! Now!_, he told himself. But he couldn´t. As she looked at her and thought about what he was about to do he simply couldn´t. So he let her hand go and took a step backwards.

"Tell me about their plan when you´ve finished", he just said. Lioness smiled and nodded. Then she went downstairs. Tilian sat down on the edge again. And hated himself for that he had wasted his chance. With an annoyed moan he laid back and looked at the sky.

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Down in the cellar the guys and the clones tried to make a plan. "We should attack them from two sides. They won´t expect two attacks at the same time", suggested Hawk.

Axel who leaned against the stairs crossed his arms on his chest and looked at Lioness who just came in. "And?"

"You´re very good", said Lioness. "You could convince him that far that it was easy for me to do the rest." She smiled. "And of course he said yes now."

"Awesome", smiled Axel. "Liz is sleeping again. Garrett found out that she´ll grow up faster than normal children. In two months she could be as far developed as a six-year-old child."

"Sounds cool", replied Lioness smiling. "I´m interested in what she will look like."

"But that fast growing ends when she´s like a ten-year-old child. Because all the machines that were one reason for her fast growing are missing. After that she grows normal like everyone else."

Lioness turned to the others. "But an attack from two sides would be useful. As Hawk said, they won´t expect it", she said.

"Cancel that strategy", said someone who just came in. Everyone looked at Tiilan who grinned brightly. "I have an even better one"

"So? Tell us."

The clone cleared his throat. "As you see the soldiers went all to this single station. And that´s the place where the rebels are, too." He walked over to the map. "The way the helicopters flew patrols told me that they guard mostly this building, in the middle of the complex." He pointed at the large building on the map. "An attack from two sides has a lot of disadvantages. We´re separated then, and getting through their defension this way is much more difficult."

"So what do you suggest?"

"We should start a distraction. In the air. Listen..."

Tilian started to explain his plan. He wanted Stingfly and Hawk to use jetpacks to get to that station. While they would take care of the helicopters the others should come to the through the canalisation. Wrecka would ram a hole into the ground so that they could climb into the station. From in there it would be much easier to fight. Tilian wanted Firekat to use her nose to find the rebels. Meanwhile the others would fight the soldiers. After finding the rebels they would free them and arrange the escape.

"Sounds good, but what´s with the escape?", asked Shark.

"The usual. We blow it up."

"And what´s with us?", asked Wrecka.

"After freeing the rebels we´ll cut the utility circuits so that all energy barriers are disactivated. That means you can break through the walls and manage to get ous outta there", said Tilian to Wrecka who just grinned. "Like exit plan B, remember? Break the wall, we escape and set a bomb. After fleeing it will explode while we´re in safe."

"Cool", smirked Garrett.

"But what about Liz?", asked Firekat interrupting. Everyone looked at her, except Tilian. Firekat blushed heavily. "Not that I care about that screaming thing..." Embarassed she rubbed the back of her neck.

Tilian still stared at the map, deeply in thoughts. He closed his eyes for a moment. "I´ll stay here to look after her. We can´t leave her alone here", he said quietly and looked at the ground.

"See who discovered the father in himself", joked Hawk. He earned angry looks of the others.

"No way", interrupted Axel. "We need you out there."

"Axel is right", agreed Garrett. "I´ll stay here and look after her. You don´t need me out there anyway." He smiled.

"Thanks." Tilian smiled slightly.

"Very strange times", said Wrecka. "We´re working together with our former enemies and Tilian is father now..."

"Can´t you stop teasing me with this?!", snapped Tilian. At once Liz woke up again and started screaming. Tilian buried his face in his right hand and shook his head. Then he breathed out slowly. "Alright...so, can anyone tell me how to get her asleep again?", he asked calmly.

"Woah, our dude is really strange", said Rayza. "Calming down in less than ten seconds. That´s quite cool."

"Alright dude", grinned Shark and gave his clone a high five.

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In the evening Garrett finished work on the Tagswords and Tagblasters. He even prepared two jetpacks for Hawk and Stingfly. They crowded around Garrett as he started to explain them their new weapons.

"Where is Liz?", asked Garrett as he saw even Tilian was there.

"Do you think just because she´s kinda my daughter I have to carry her all the time with me?", asked the clone. Garrett rose an eyebrow and Tilian just grinned proudly. "Could manage to get her asleep. So make it quick, I guess she´ll wake up again sooner than I hope."

"Um..yeah. So, here we have Tagswords for all of you. Well, except for Dragon and Sebastian. Your ninja swords are as good as the Tagswords", grinned Garrett. "The Tagblasters are even stronger now. Can shoot through nearly everything."

"Nearly everything?", asked Lioness.

"Except through energy barriers", smirked Garrett. Then he cleared his throat. "Stingfly, Hawk, you already got to know your jetpacks. Now, when you´re up there stick these small bombs to the helicopters when the others are ready. That will distract the soldiers. And now to the rest of you. I hacked into their computer system and found out that the rebels are deeply in that building. Far away from the canalisation tunnel."

"That´s why we thought of posting _guards_ at some points. Just in case they come earlier after us than we thought", finished Axel. "We need Firekat till we found the rebels. And Wrecka too. So we should talk about who is going to keep watch. Without Garrett, Wrecka and Firekat we´re ten persons. There are four points we should guard. The rest of us goes with Firekat and Wrecka." He leaned against a wall and looked at the map of the building Garrett had printed out on that old computer in the cellar.

"Four points? So always two of us should keep watch, the other two go to the rebels", suggested King.

"My clone dude and I will keep watch in this area", said Shark and pointed at the marked place that was closest to the canalisation. The others nodded.

"King, Lioness? Can you take care of this area?", asked Garrett. Both of them nodded. "So. I´d say Dragon and Sebastian should stay in this area while Axel and Tilian go with Wrecka and Firekat."

"Sounds good", said Hawk.

For the rest of the night they discussed their plan, with time settings and what they should do in case something worked wrong. Early that morning, at about 3:00am, they decided to get to bed. Their plan should start in the evening at 23:30 when the sun was down. In the darkness everything would be much easier. To everyones satisfaction Liz didn´t wake up screaming. She slept the whole day. Only some times she was woken up to eat something.

"If it could stay that easy", yawned Tilian and laid on the matress. "No noise, only a peaceful girl that sleeps all day. Could get used to that."

"You won´t have that for long. She´s growing much fasther than-"

"I know that", interrupted Tilian grinning. "And that´s one reason why I accepted to look after her." Lioness smiled. She laid down on the ground next to him, just like the night before. Next to her laid Axel on his back, his arms behind his head. He stared at the ceiling.

"After all this we should have a big party, to celebrate our win", grinned Rayza. Shark´s mood lit up at once. Somehow the two understood each other very well. Meanwhile Rayza was just like Shark, calling everyone _dude_. Everybody thought he had always been like that, but under Lee´s control he had never wanted to show this side. Now he didn´t care.

"Yeah, with a lot of sushi", grinned Firekat. She laid on the ground like a cat, her tail wrapped around her body. Rayza looked at her scared.

"Hey, no sushi. That´s unfair! Moreover pizza tastes even better", he grinned.

"And ice-cream", added Shark.

"And a lot of balloons", smiled Wrecka. The clones oppressed their laughs.

"The biggest party Landmark City has ever seen! With all the rebels!", suggested Hawk smirking. "Shall I organize it?"

"No way!"

"Nope!"

"Not in a hundred years!"

"Forget it!"

Hawk´s smile disappeared and he sank deeper into the couch he sat on. King who laid on another matress stroke the head of a snake. The reptiles from the mall always stayed in that cellar and listened to King when he talked to him. Now the snake had wrapped around his shoulder and enjoyed it. The geckos stuck to the walls while the chameleon sat on the rail of the stairs.

Tilian didn´t even look at them but hissed something very quietly so that no one noticed it. A small gecko seemed to nodd and walked along the wall. Then it climbed the wall until he hung under the ceiling. As it was directly over Hawk Tilian hissed again something and the gecko let go off the ceiling, landing directly on Hawk´s head. At once he started screaming and tried to get the reptile off him.

Everyone watched Hawk laughing. Lioness sat up and smiled at Tilian. "This isn´t your work, is it?", she asked. He simply shrugged his shoulders.

"You should know that reptiles are strange but fascinating creatures. Sometimes you know what they´re going to do the next moment, but another time you don´t even know what they are about to do. Guess this gecko did something very unexpected", said Tilian innocent.ly He looked at her as he noticed her smile. So he just smiled back.

"A bit like you", she said. "Sometimes it´s obvious what you´re about to do...and sometimes you can´t see any thought of yours in your face."

"Was this supposed to be another strange compliment?", he asked jokingly.

"Yeah, it was." Lioness smiled.

"Ever noticed that you always make compliments about qualities of others to flatter me? Last time you said Liz has my eyes and now you tell me about gecko thoughts", he laughed.

"Alright...then I say now that _your_ eyes are beautiful", said Lioness. No one in the room seemed to pay attention to the two of them. They were distracted by Hawk who still tried to get rid of that gecko. But some of the team were already asleep. Firekat for example. Or King, Stingfly and Axel. Now Tilian looked into Lioness' eyes. He nearly stared into them.

"Don´t you mean _fascinating_? Beautiful is the wrong word here. Coz that word is already reserved for you", he replied quietly and smiled slightly.

"I guess now I know the truth", said Lioness. "About my feelings."

"And the truth is?", wanted Tilian to know. Lioness looked deeply into his eyes. She bent over to him till their faces nearly touched. _Now you can kiss her! Now is your chance! Do it!_, yelled a voice in his head. And this time he wanted to do it. Lioness moved her face closer to his one. For what reason ever his heart beat much faster than before, he nearly stopped breathing.

Only some inches were between their faces. Lioness already closed her eyes to kiss him. But then she suddenly stopped and looked up.


	21. Fighting in a Team

Fighting in a Team

Only now both of them noticed that everyone looked at them. Quickly Lioness sprang away from the clone, the two blushed.

"Why don´t you continue?", asked Shark. "That´s way more interesting than Hawk´s gecko head."

"Hey!" Hawk threw the gecko at Shark. The surfer just caught it and sat it on the ground next to King. Thankfully the reptile hissed quietly and sneaked on King´s shoulder where it laid down. "Just think about what Axel will say. Guess he´ll get real mad", said Hawk and sat down on the couch again.

"Why? What´s with him?", asked Wrecka.

Sebastian laughed quietly. "Because even I know that he´s in love with Lioness", he said. Wrecka still didn´t get it.

"So?", he asked.

"So if he sees Lioness and Tilian together...", began Hawk. He glanced at Axel who laid on the ground and was asleep. Hawk was so sure of that because Axel made some funny faces. He always did when he was asleep.

"He´ll get jealous", finished Shark. "Woah, that´s all way too complicated for our rhino." Shark laid on the ground, took a cushion off the couch and tried to fall asleep. The others decided to try to sleep too. Tilian hissed something to a gecko that climbed over to the light switch and turned off the light.

"Cool", yawned Lioness. In the darkness she came closer to Tilian and clung to his body. Hesitating he laid his arm around her. Now Lioness sat up and moved her face closer to Tilian´s. In the darkness he could see better than a human, so now he saw her very well. _Kiss her now or again your chance is gone!_ _Now or never..._ His heart beat much faster than before and a terrible heat came up into his face.

This was not the first kiss of her. She had kissed him once before station 12 had been destroyed. But that was something completely different. The last time they had wanted to find out about their true feelings for each other. Meanwhile a lot of time had passed and everything was different. And much more difficult. Now both loved each other, Tilian knew about his true feelings. And Lioness seemed to feel the same way. So it was the first real kiss.

But they hadn´t kissed yet. Lioness' face was very close. Something prevented Tilian from moving his face only some inches forwards to kiss her. Gently her lips touched his ones, he closed his eyes. From now on he didn´t have to worry. Lioness wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Tilian didn´t even know how, but he deepened that kiss. He only did what his feeling told him.

Lioness laid the upper part of her body on his chest. Gently he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tighter into the kiss. Lioness smiled slightly and broke the kiss for only a part of a second to catch her breath. Then she pulled him into another kiss. And somehow she had gotten used to the strange feeling of kissing him. It was much different from any other kiss. But she didn´t care of his sharp teeth or his forked tongue. She loved him. That was all that counted. And he loved her too.

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The next day Garrett woke up at about midday. After nearly nine hours sleeping he was still tired. Sleepy he looked around and grinned slightly as he saw that Lioness laid very close to Tilian. But something missed in the room. Or someone. Garrett was awake now. Who missed? Liz was this time in the room, as usual she laid in the open drawer of a wardrobe that was filled with some blankets so that she couldn´t hurt herslef. Moreover that was much more comfortable.

"Axel?" Garrett looked around. There were Tilian and Lioness on the matress, Wrecka in the armchair, Firekat on the ground next to him, Shark on the ground next to the couch, just like Stingfly, Dragon sat with crossed legs on the ground and seemed to sleep while meditating. Sebastian did the same. Rayza and Hawk shared the couch, King laid on the other matress between the reptiles. But Axel wasn´t around.

"Guys! Hey, wake up!", shouted Garrett. At once everyone sat up alarmed, Dragon even rolled into fighting position and pulled the sword out of its scabbard on his back. Now everyone looked sleepy but alarmed at Garrett. He smiled apologetically.

"Has anyone seen Axel?"

"You´re waking us up because of that?", growled Wrecka and laid back again.

"Maybe he just went for a walk or something", guessed King and turned his back to the others. The reptiles hissed quietly.

"No. As you know we said no one should leave this house without telling one of the others. But he didn´t", said Garrett.

"That´s not usual. Normally he follows the rules strictly. Especially in our team", mumbered Lioness. Tilian stretched yawning and rubbed the back of his neck. Suddenly the small gecko that had turned off the light the night before jumped on his lap and looked up at him.

"Maybe it knows where Axel is?", asked Shark jokingly.

"Great idea, surfer boy", smiled Tilian. Shark was surprised about this. "Ya see?" He smiled proudly.

Tilian lifted the small gecko and hissed a short sentence. The gecko didn´t reply at once and looked at him. Tilian added something. The gecko understood and hissed a reply. "He did what?!", shouted Tilian. The small gecko winced a little, but hissed a yes. Tilian sat it on the ground again and stood up.

"What happened to Axel?", asked Hawk.

"He took some bombs, a Tagsword, a Tagblaster and a few smoke bombs. Then he left. That´s all the gecko knows and saw", explained Tilian. "I guess he wants to fulfil our plan alone." The gecko didn´t calm down. It jumped up and down in front of Tilian, hissed nervously and tried to climb his leg. With a toneless sigh Tilian bent down and let the reptile jump on to his arm.

"Something else you wanna tell me?", he asked. The gecko began to talk to him again. Tilian´s eyes widened shortly, then he looked at the ground and continued listening to the story of the gecko. "And then?", he asked impatient as the gecko hesitated for some seconds. It continued. "Alright, thanks for the help." Tilian smiled weakly and the gecko climbed his arm until it reached his shoulder. There it laid down.

"What did it say?"

"First, _it_ is a _he_. And his name is Rex", began Tilian. "What? He told me that!", he said as he saw the asking looks of the others. "Now, he said that Axel hadn´t been asleep during our talk. He has been awake all the time. Then Rex told me that Axel saw us after that", he explained and looked at Lioness. Lioness understood. Tilian cleared his throat. "The gecko described me Axel´s face as he saw us and I can just guess he wasn´t very happy. When we all were asleep he grabbed the weapons and left."

"That´s all? He simply left?"

"And he said something of _gone for good _or so", added Tilian. The gecko on his shoulder seemed to nod. Tilian leaned against a wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Just a question", interrupted Rayza. "But what did he see?"

At once Lioness blushed heavily and looked at Tilian who just smiled weak. "Guess he saw us kissing", he replied quietly and looked at Lioness. Hawk frowned and looked at the two.

"You two...Lioness?! You really kissed _him_?!"

Lioness noticed that everyone looked at her now, except Tilian. He stared at the wall in opposite of him. And now Lioness couldn´t see any emotion in his face, or any thought in his eyes. She cleared her throat embarassed and stood up, walked over to the wardrobe and lifted Liz carefully. The others didn´t look at her anymore, but she felt Tilian´s look in her back.

As she turned around he hadn´t moved an inch, his head was still turned to he wall. But his eyes focused her. It was like he was watching her distrustfully, to protect the baby if necessary. At least that's what Lioness felt when she noticed his look. Of course he knew she wouldn't do anything to Liz. However, that he didn't say a word and just looked at her from the corner of his eyes made her feel strange.

Lioness walked up the stairs. "I´ll feed her quickly", she said and disappeared in the door.

"I´ll add that to the list of things with that you can get rid of Lioness", joked Shark.

"What else is on that list?", asked Stingfly curiously and sat up.

"Guys!" Everyone´s head turned to Garrett. "We have no time for that. As far as we know went Axel to free the rebels all alone. And we´re sitting here doing nothing!"

"I guess he´s already dead. If he went after we all fell asleep..that was hours ago! Meanwhile they caught and killed him", said Firekat coldly. "Moreover what should we do now? Follow him?"

"For example", said King.

She laughed ironic. "Oh please. As if we found him in that giantic building before he does something very stupid. And with very stupid I mean _very_ stupid."

"That´s right...If this between Tilian and Lioness bugs him more than finding his own father it is very serious to him", said Dragon. Meanwhile he leaned against the stairs and looked at the others.

"But he already found me and the answers he wanted." Sebastian thought for a moment. "And I bet now after finding me he had his feelings for Lioness on his list. Maybe he wanted explain everything to her after finding his father."

"He came too late", said Hawk simply.

"He knew Lioness had kinda a thing for me", agreed Tilian. "He talked to me before he was infected with that virus. But that was all much more difficult. At that time I told him I didn´t love her, and that was the truth. This changed of course. I bet he feels also betrayed. By me and perhaps by Lioness."

"We have to get after him! Fast!"

Everyone stood up and ran to the stairs, except Dragon, Sebastian, Tilian and Garrett. "Guys!" At once they all stopped and looked at Tilian.

"Are you really that naiv that you think you can simply walk into that building and find Axel?", he asked growling.

"Hey, at least we´re doing something!", spat Firekat and stopped in front of Tilian. She looked angry into his eyes. "You´re not our leader."

"You´re not the leader as well. So don´t try to get everything and everyone under your control! And if you simply started your attack without preparing you´ll all die!", hissed Tilian back.

"That´s better than sitting here and thinking about the same plan again and again!", she growled.

"So?! But it´s better to _have_ a plan than improvise!"

"You´re stubborn!"

"And you have no idea!"

I see, you´re too coward!", spat Firekat furiously and growled.

"Coward?! Some moments ago you said that Axel could be already dead! So why do you support that idea of finding him?!" Tilian looked like he was about to kill her the next moment.

"'Cause I want to do something!", she hissed. "Coward lizard!"

Tilian grabbed her collar and pulled her up to his face. She was not as tall as he was, so he simply lifted her. Her feet didn´t touch the ground anymore, she looked a bit scared. Tilian just grinned slightly as he noticed her look, but his face turned serious again. Firekat looked directly into his eyes, with a serious face as well.

"So what now?", she asked challenging. "You wanna kill me?" Slowly she rose her hand and laid it on his cheek, then her hand went down and her sharp claws touched his neck.

"If you do, I kill you as well", she smirked.

"You can´t", he said a little calmer than before. "We all know you can´t."

"So let´s see if you can kill me", she asked grinning.

"I don´t want to. We still need you for our plan. Moreover you´re a member of our team. I´d never kill one of us."

"That is just a silly excuse."

"It isn´t. There is a difference between us. You want to kill me, but you can´t. I don´t want to kill you, so I don´t do it. There is a difference between_ be able to _and _want to do_", he said and let go off her. "So now we should work together and not against each other."

"Difference?", she asked angry. "The only difference between us is that I´m a cat and you´re a lizard." She looked away and folded her arms in front of her chest. "But you´re right. We should work together."

"Promise", said Tilian seriously. "Promise you will work together with me, and with us."

"Promise? My promise is not worth anything..."

"Maybe not for you, but for me", he said. "So, do you accept?"

Firekat looked surprised at him, but then she nodded. "I promise."

"Woo, your leader dude has this cat really under control", said Shark grinning to Rayza who just nodded grinning. For this both of them earned an angry look of Firekat.

"So, what´s the plan?", asked Sebastian.

**Since this is a Tilian x Lioness story..hope ya like it :) Review please!!**


	22. All Alone

All alone...

Meanwhile Axel was very close to the mainbuilding. He had waited a long time in some empty houses close to the complex to study the patrols of the guards. Now he knew exactly when he had time to get in. He sneaked around the corner of a house and into the street. In front of him was the mainbuilding. Quickly he ducked as a helicopter flew over his head.

They hadn´t seen him yet. He was lucky. As a guard walked away again he ran as fast as he could and towards the wall. The windows were mostly broken, but Axel knew that if he went through them an alarm would ring. So he ran along the wall, always looking out for soldiers. Finally he reached the window he had searched for. He put a small metallic needle under the window frame to interrupt the circuit of the alarm in it.

Quickly he slipped through the window. He had seen that this one had sometimes errors in its security system. It was the _weakest_ one. So only a needle was enough to break the alarm system and those seconds were enough for Axel to get in.

Now he was in a large room. He hid behind some old wooden boxes standing around. In this hall were a few vehicles of the soldiers, in a small room in this hall stood two soldiers next to a row of guns that leaned against the wall. They were talking. So Axel took his chance and ran till he reached one vehicle. He hid behind it and looked around. No one in sight. Most of the soldiers seemed to guard the building outside.

Of course he had seen the supervision camera in the corner of he room. It seemed to be the only one in this hall. He waited until it didn´t focus him, then he ran and stopped under it. As the camera turned away again he ran and hid behind another wooden box. Here he was safe first. Both soldiers were still talking. And Axel nearly made it to the door out of the hall. Maybe he could run there without being seen by anyone. Including the camera or the soldiers.

Again he waited until the camera turned away. At a glance he saw that the soldiers turned their backs to him. Perfect. Now was his chance to run. He did at once. Without being seen he reached the door, opened and closed it quickly. In the other room he jumped and rolled behind another wooden box. This room was much smaller. Here stood boxes, filled with guns and bombs.

There were shelves on the wall. On them stood small boxes with ammunition. But Axel didn´t care. His aim was the area with the rebels. Quickly and quietly he sneaked through the room, towards the next door.

Suddenly it opened. As fast as he could he jumped and hid behind a box next to the door. A soldier came in and walked over to the shelves. If he turned around he would see Axel. Axel himself hoped he wouldn´t do so. He almost stopped breathing.

The soldier took a box with ammunition. Then he suddenly stopped and sniffed shortly. Axel thought the soldier could hear his loud heartbeat. He prayed that the soldier wouldn´t turn around and see him. Sweat was on his forehead and he stopped breathing. But the soldier only sneezed loudly, turned to the other door and disappeared into the large hall with the vehicles.

Axel breathed out slowly. That had been narrow. He stood up and walked quietly through the other door, looking around carefully. As far as he knew were the rebels very close. This room was very big. Some stairs led to a footbridge along the wall. No soldier was in sight. Axel sneaked along the wall. He passed some boxes with weapons. But one of them caught his attention.

He grabbed a weapon out of it and continued his way along the wall. The Jo-Lan warrior opened a door only a little bit to look into the next room. There were the rebels. Finally. They sat behind an energy barrier which separated the large hall into two halves. In front of the barrier were a lot of soldiers, they guarded the rebels. Even on the footbridge over the energy barrier and along the wall were more than ten soldiers.

Too much for Axel. He couldn´t look around the other corner in that hall. But perhaps there were even more clones. Axel didn´t want to run this risk. They would kill him at once. So he decided to arrange a distraction.

The weapon he had _borrowed _from the soldiers was a high tech strongbow. And it was pure coincidence that next to the box with the strongbow was another one. Arrows with explosive cores. Axel grinned as he took an arrow and laid it carefully on the bow. He aimed out of a broken window. The arrow would go through it without triggering off the alarm.

Axel strained the dacron string and let it go. The arrow flew through the window and towards a vehicle outside. As the arrow hit it the whole vehicle exploded and flames rose metres high. Axel shot another arrow at another vehicle. And it exploded as well. Now the alarm rang, soldiers ran out to see what was up. Axel hid behind some boxes and waited until the soldiers were gone, then he sneaked into he room with the energy barrier.

Easily he knocked out the two remaining soldiers. The rebels looked happy up as they saw Axel, but they kept quiet. They knew the soldiers would come back at once if there was any noise inside their prison.

Axel could break the security code for the barrier. It disappeared at once and the rebels were free. Quietly he explained them the plan. Then everyone nodded. Axel took a bomb and placed in the wall to the street. All of them took some steps backwards. The bomb exploded and caused a hole to the wall. Happily the rebels ran out of it and followed Axel´s description of the way to the meeting place.

Suddenly Axel felt someone was behind him. Quickly he jumped, turned a backflip, kicked this one and pressed him to the ground, his right hand ready to punch. Axel stopped as he saw who laid under him. "Tilian?" Even though he recognized his clone he didn´t go off him. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to prevent you from doing something stupid", replied the clone. "And you?"

Axel stood up and helped his clone. As he turned around he saw the other clones and his own team, including Sebastian and Dragon.

"You don´t understand, we have to get outta here, I triggered off the alarm!", said Axel angry that his friends were about to destroy his plan.

"We hear that", said Firekat a little tormented by the loud alarm.

"Let´s get away from here, the rebels are already free!"

As they turned to the hole in the wall a lot of soldiers blockated their way. They surrounded the team and aimed with their guns at them. "Drop the weapons and rise your hands!", ordered one soldier.

Hesitating the teens dropped their Tagblasters and Tagswords, Axel dropped the bow too. But Dragon and Sebastian didn´t want to drop their swords. "Drop the swords and surrender voluntary or we have to force you!"

They didn´t listen. The soldier got angry. "Narkose gas!" The soldiers put on their gas masks and sprayed a yellow gas into the room. Soon the team fainted because of the gas. They fell to the ground and everything around them turned black.

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"Are you happy now? You destroyed my whole plan", snapped Axel at Tilian after they had woken up. Now they laid in a cage with walls made up of energy barriers. Tilian sat up too. Angry he looked at Axel and growled, baring his teeth.

"Destroyed? We tried to save you!", he snapped back.

"Save me? Why should you?! You don´t need me anymore. I have no reason to stay with you! So just leave me alone!"

"You´re acting like an offended child! We´re a team, remember?!", yelled Tilian. "More than that, we´re friends!" Now he was in rage.

"Friends?!" Axel looked even angrier. "_You _have never been my friend. And I can spit on those _friends_ who betray me!"

"No one betrayed you, we-"

"Yeah, yeah, as if! You´re not my friends anymore. I can´t count on you."

"You can, we tried to save you!"

"And destroyed everything!", snapped Axel.

"Axel..." Sebastian tried to calm his son down. Axel ignored him completely. He still stared angry at his clone. Tilian did the same.

"If you hadn´t run away-"

"I had a good reason!"

"Axel..."

"And running away from _you_..."

"Axel!" Sebastian tried to interrupt him, but Axel didn´t listen.

"...away from you is the only right thing! And that-"

"Axel Manning!", yelled Sebastian. Axel´s head spun around and he looked at his father, surprised and a bit shocked. Angry Sebastian looked at him. Slowly the thought that everyone was mad at him crept into his head.

"What?!", he asked furiously.

"Calm down and listen to him!", said Sebastian a little more quietly.

"Why should I?"

"Because it´s the truth what he says. And maybe you understand everything then", explained his father. Axel looked directly into his eyes, still angry. Sebastian just nodded. Axel sighed quietly and tried to calm down. Then he looked at Tilian, still angry, but not as furious as before.

"Spill it, lizard", hissed Axel.

"Alright, Axel", said Tilian calmly. "No one betrayed you. You ran away because of Lioness and me, right?"

Axel didn´t reply. "I count that as a yes", said Tilian. "When you asked me about my feelings I told you the truth. Just like I tell you now. That was a long time ago, and you knew Lioness kinda fell for me. And we even argued a lot because I didn´t know about my feelings. When you woke up after your infection with the virus you saw us together...but that was no real kiss. She just did to find out about my true feelings."

"Sounds interesting", replied Axel shortly.

"I haven´t finished yet."

"Then continue. This story sounds like a cheap romance on tv."

"After this we decided to be friends again, nothing more. But after the station blew up and we had to flee...and then the happenings in the tower and in the mall changed my mind. I...I fell for her too, and now I can believe her when she says she loves me. And I want you to understand that..." Tilian looked at him.

Axel sat there with crossed legs and his arms folded in front of his chest. He looked with a serious face at Tilian. The clone sighed quietly. "Remember when I was mad at everything and you talked to me? Or when you talked to me even though I wished to kill you because I was mad at you? I didn´t want to listen either, but the longer you talked the more you could get my attention."

Axel rose an eyebrow.

"And every word you said was true. You never lied. That´s why I listened all the time. And that´s why I thought about it. I don´t want you to understand this, I just want you to think about it. I´m not you, I can´t talk about such things like you can. But one thing is sure, you got my respect with that. That´s why I´m sitting here now, 'cause you´re my friend, I respect you and I want you to be in our team again. And I want you to believe that I said the truth."

Axel didn´t reply at once. He just looked at Tilian. Somehow he knew he said the truth. Axel closed his eyes and smiled slightly. "That emotion-stuff sounds real weird coming from you", he just said and grinned, looking at his clone.

"So you believe me?"

"Did I say anything else?" Now the both of them smiled.

"So, now you hug each other and everything is fine again", smirked Hawk. The smile of Axel and Tilian disappeared. Both looked seriously but annoyed at him.

"Hugging that thing? Never!", growled Axel.

"That´s disgusting", hissed Tilian in agreement. As they looked at Hawk and saw his face both began to laugh. And Hawk didn´t catch the joke.

"Awww...so everything is alright again?", said a voice behind them. At once they all turned around to face the one who stood there.

**Okay guys, here's chappie 22 :P Leave a review if you like it! ...And...don't throw with stones if you dislike it hides See ya in the next chapter!**


	23. Resurrection

Resurrection

"Surprised to see me?", asked the clone.

"Lizard! But we thought you were dead! I...we...we left you in that explosion!" Tilian was obviously shocked, surprised and angry at the same moment. Lizard walked towards the energy barrier and grinned.

"That I survived this is enough proof of the improvements to your original DNA. That proves that I´m even stronger than you", he smirked. "And I expected you would come here. To free your friends, of course. Now I have you right where I wanted you."

"What do you want from me?", asked Tilian. "That machine is destroyed. I bet you don´t have another one."

"That is correct. It has been the only machine of that kind. Nevertheless I need you."

"You didn´t answer my question", growled Tilian. "Why do you need me?"

"I still need your original DNA. After you destroyed both of Lee´s labs all DNA samples and even the ones of your genetic material are gone. So I need new ones. And more than that. For more improvement on the next new clones I need a bit of your spinal cord as well."

"Spinal cord? What do you want with that?", asked Axel distrustful.

"If I explain that to you you won´t understand anything. So I save that time."

"Why do you know all about those experiments and how to practise them?", asked Lioness growling.

"Lee told me. And he taught me. One thing he missed when he created you. That´s another difference between us. I´m much more intelligent than you", grinned Lizard and looked at Tilian.

"I'm better looking. And moreover I´m way more talented", smirked Tilian proudly and tried to irritate Lizard.

"You have a rare talent to annoy, that´s right."

"Think and do what you want, I won´t let you get my DNA", snapped Tilian surely. He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"I thought you would say no. Again. That´s why I took care of this problem before it even appeared. And I bet you will give me your DNA and all other things I want from you voluntary", said Lizard.

"You have nothing you could use against me. Kill me if you want, but then you won´t get what you need. And you won´t kill my friends. If you take only one step into this prison I kill you", growled Tilian.

"Oh, it´s not your friends I want to use against you. Something different. While you were here I went on a small trip and visited someone. And guess what? In the cellar I found a boy and a child", grinned Lizard.

"I don´t think so", said Tilian, though his voice shook a little because he was scared. Scared that Lizard had really found Garrett and Liz. And scared that he would maybe kill her. Just to get what he wanted.

Lizard just ordered a soldier into the room. He stopped next to the clone. In his arms was Liz, she was asleep. Tilian looked shocked. "You...I-I mean...how...?", he stuttered heavily and swallowed. Even though he didn´t know the small girl very long he liked her. He loved her. Because she was his daughter and somehow a part of himself.

"You monster!", snapped Lioness. "She´s innocent, she did nothing to you!"

"Lee created her. So I have the right to do with her whatever I want. 'Cause Lee gave me the control over his army and in case he isn´t around he gave me the rights for his creations and labs", smiled the clone.

Tilian just stared at him. "Why are you doing all this?", he asked simply. "Why do you hurt everyone around you so much? Why do you let everyone suffer pain?"

"Because I want it so", replied Lizard. "Even you know this feeling. After your creation you followed Lee´s orders and hunted Axel down, you were prepared to even kill him. But meanwhile you grew weaker and became his friend. Shame on you. But I am even stronger than you. I know that and I won´t waste my power like you did. Moreover I have now control over everything, because Lee gave me the control over everything. I took his place in this city. And I´ll fulfill his plans."

"You destroy more than saving the world", hissed Tilian. "Now, let her go!"

"One last time I offer you this: Come with me voluntary or I´ll let her suffer pain in front of your eyes. I won´t kill her, but the pain she´ll suffer is even worse than death. So come with me voluntary. Then nothing will happen to her."

"I don´t trust you. How shall I know you won´t break your word?"

"You just should be glad that she´ll stay alive", replied Lizard. "Now, do you accept?"

"I..." Tilian looked at Lizard, then at the small girl. At last he looked at Lizard again. "I accept." Tilian stood up. A hole appeared in the energy barrier. With lowed head he walked through it. Then the wall closed again.

"Right decision", said Lizard. He told the guard to bring the baby away again. "Seems I finally found your weak point. You´re strong, your will too, but your friends weaken you. Maybe you don´t matter if you lose your life, but you´d do everything to save their ones."

"Did you want me to accept to talk to you or what?", hissed Tilian.

Lizard ordered some soldiers to bring him away. "You´re lucky that even in this headquarter is a lab. Deeply under the ground where no one can hear your screams..."

"Don´t count on it", replied Tilian as he walked away with the guards. "I promise you I won´t make any sound."

After they disappeared in a door Lizard turned to the others in the cage. "And maybe I could even find a use for you. But later. I have to take care of your friend first", he said grinning evilly and turned around to leave.

"I´m impressed", said Firekat. "He never did something like that before."

"Who? Tilian?", asked Lioness. Her clone nodded.

"I never thought he would be prepared to do something like that."

"Honestly...none of us thought that", agreed Stingfly.

"Let´s hope he´ll be able to walk after that", said Axel quietly. "I don´t know much about it, but as far as I know is it a very painful process to get the spinal cord...and I bet Lizard won´t waist money for any narkose."

"What if he doesn´t survive that? What if Lizard simply kills him after he got what he wanted?", asked Lioness scared.

"Then...I guess then this team had the longest time a leader", replied Axel.

"Leader? This team doesn´t have any leader. We´re two teams thrown together, two leaders who are best friends now. We even have two ninjas and a computer freak in our team. So we´re a completely new one", said Hawk.

"That would mean you two dudes are the leaders", said Shark.

"And you dudes share the leadership", agreed Rayza.

Axel shook his head. "No. It´s right, we´re two teams together. But this new team has a leader. An even better one than me. I always saw in him the true leader of this team. Because he learned so much in the last years. About feelings, trust and friendship. Something I still have to learn. That´s why I think he´s the leader", replied Axel.

"Um...I thought so, too", said Wrecka. "He has always been the leader."

"He´s not better than you, but he´s a good leader", agreed King.

Firekat nodded. "He gets everyone of us under control."

"And makes good plans", meant Lioness.

"He chooses the right even if the choice is difficult", said Hawk.

"He has always been the leader. That´s his role in this team", added Stingfly.

"The dude can more than we thought", smiled Shark.

"And that dude is cool", agreed Rayza.

"And", added Sebastian, "You respect and accept him in his role."

"So we chose our leader now", smiled Axel. "And I think we chose exactly the right one for this role."

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One or two hours later two guards brought Tilian back. The team in the cage looked up as they came in. The two soldiers carried Tilian who looked terribly weak. If they saw right he was without conscious. Ungently they threw him into the cage again and left. At once Lioness went over to Tilian and turned him on his back. His breath was very quiet, his heartbeat slow. He didn´t wear his jumpsuit jacket anymore.

He had no wounds his friends could see at the moment. Lioness checked the upper part of his body to find any injuries. But she found nothing. Axel knelt down in opposite of her. The others crowded around them.

Lioness noticed Tilian sweated terribly, but at the same time his body shook as if he froze. She put off her jacket and wanted to lay it on him, but before she could someone laid his black jumpsuit jacket on Tilian. Lioness looked up. Axel smiled at her and now he sat there in his undershirt.

"Keep your jacket", he said quietly. Lioness nodded and put on the jacket again. She looked at Tilian and stroke his cheek gently. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked at her.

"What happened to you?", she asked quietly. Tilian tried to sat up, but couldn´t. He felt too weak. He _was_ too weak. The clone closed his eyes again. "Later...", he whispered very quietly. Soon he fell asleep again.

"Let him rest", said Dragon. "His inner wounds are too big."

"Don´t you know anything to make him feel better? Some chinese herbs, a herbal creme or a tea?", asked Shark. Dragon looked at him.

"If I were in a lonely mountain area somewhere deeply in China...then yes. But caught in a building with an energy barrier...no."

Lioness listened on Tilian´s chest, to make sure he was still alive. She heard a very quiet heartbeat. Worried she looked into his face that was filled with pain. And that he seemed to have a bad dream made everything worse. Very quietly he spoke in his sleep.

"A lizard..", he mumbered quietly. Lioness bent down to hear what he said. "...is only...a dragon without wings..."

"What does that mean?", asked Lioness. "A lizard is only a dragon without wings?"

"That is, if I may say so, very wise", said Sebastian. "He seems to be in a very deep sleep, somehwere deep in his mind. The lizard could be Tilian himself. The lizard is a dragon without wings. He means the outward appearance. Lizards don´t have wings."

"And the dragon?"

"In a lot of legends and stories the dragon is the symbol for strength and courage. He tries to stay strong. He is the lizard he means, so he´s the dragon without wings. He wants himself to stay strong. That what he´s doing is nearly like meditation", explained Sebastian. "Nothing like a Jo-Lan trance, but it´s close to one that lets him forget his pain."

"Interesting", said Axel. "That means he fell into a kind of trance?"

Sebastian nodded.

**Lol...any reviews, please? looks around ... maybe...?**


	24. Only a Dragon without Wings

A Lizard is only a Dragon without Wings

Some hours later Tilian opened his eyes. Weakly he looked around and saw the others sitting next to him. Lioness noticed that he was awake and came over to him. She smiled as she saw he felt a bit better.

"What happened to you?", she asked quietly.

"You don´t really wanna know that", he replied with a raspy voice. "I can tell you...I tried hardly to keep my promise. But I couldn´t..."

"Which promise?"

"I promised not to make any sound", he said. "I couldn´t keep that."

"So bad?", she asked worried.

"Even worse."

He tried to sit up, but couldn´t. He sighed quietly. "This was the first time in my whole life I really wanted to cry because of the pain." Even now he could still feel the pain in his body. "But...that wasn´t all yet. He didn´t get everything he wanted. Fortunately we were interrupted...a soldier came in and said that the rebels attacked a station of soldiers."

"We won´t let him gonna take you a second time. It would kill you", said Lioness seriously.

"No...I have to do this...he´ll hurt Liz if I don´t..." Lioness nodded. She had forgotten the small baby. But now that Tilian spoke of her she knew he had to suffer all this. Instead of Liz.

"You´re truely a dragon without wings", said Axel as he came to them.

"Huh?" Tilian was confused.

"You talked in your sleep or trance or whatever. You said a lizard is only a dragon without wings. And it´s true."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are the lizard. The dragon without wings. The dragon is the symbol for strength and courage. Mostly inner strength. And you proved that you´re stronger inside than outside. Like a dragon."

"Don´t blame me for talking in my sleep. At least I´m not pulling faces like you do", replied Tilian.

Axel grinned. "Oh, you do", he laughed.

"At least a try."

Lizard came back into the room and stopped in front of the energy barrier. "Enjoy this as long as you can", he said.

"I do", replied Tilian. He smiled brightly. "And guess what? It´s way more fun than hanging around with you."

"I already thought this way", replied Lizard.

"What´s with Liz?", asked Tilian at once.

"She´s fine. At the moment." Tilian sat up and glared at his clone. "We take good care of her. Maybe, but only maybe she will be one of us in the future. After your accidently death of course."

"Death? I won´t die."

"Is that a promise? Like the one you gave me before? You couldn´t keep it as well." Lizard grinned. "The supervision camera filmed everything of course. Including the sound. And your screams. So I have a proof for that you couldn´t keep your promise. And you can hear it whenever you want. Again and again."

"No, no, keep it if you want", said Tilian quickly. He seemed to be a bit scared. Lizard grinned even more.

"But maybe your friends want to. On this cassette is only the sound. I thought the footage was too good for you", he said and threw a small cassette recorder through the energy barrier. King caught it. Lizard left the room with a short but evil laugh. King looked at the small cassette recorder in his hands. It wasn´t bigger than an MP3-Player.

"Play it, I wanna hear that", said Wrecka. King looked at Tilian.

"No, please not!", he said.

But Wrecka took the cassette recorder and pushed the _play_ button. First nothing appeared. Then they could hear a conversation.

"Can anyone turn off that thing?", asked Tilian hopefully. No one moved. "Thanks for helping guys."

Tilian grabbed the cassette recorder and threw it on the ground hardly, then he stepped on it as hard as he could. Now the cassette recorder laid there in its pieces. Satisfied Tilian kicked the thing out of the cage and sat down again. The others looked at him.

"You don´t want to listen", he said growling. "And I didn´t want to listen to that again and again."

"Don´t worry. We should think of a way to get free now. Then we have to find Garrett and Liz", said Lioness and placed her hand on Tilian´s shoulder.

"And we have to defeat that lizard once and for all", hissed Firekat. "I don´t like him."

"We neither do", said Axel. "But how could we get outta here? I can´t see any computer that controls the energy barrier..."

"That means we can´t turn it off", said King. "But there must be another way."

"The only time the barrier is open is when Lizard gets Tilian out of it", said Stingfly. "Maybe we can use this short time span."

"But how? There are always soldiers around if the lizard dude is here." Shark looked around. "At the moment not, but when their leader dude is around."

"That´s right."

Dragon looked at them. "The lizard has to spread its wings and to learn how to fly", he said simply. The others looked confused. But Tilian understood and grinned brightly. He looked up.

"He means that our prison has no ceiling. The only way left is over us", he explained. Everyone looked up. The energy walls were at least three metres high. Over their heads was no energy barrier, two metres over it was a footbridge. That meant that there were five metres to the footbridge.

"None of us can fly", growled Rayza.

"We don´t have to fly", grinned Tilian as he stood up. "We have to work together."

"What do you plan?", asked Lioness.

"We could build a pyramide, then the strongest of us is on top of it and throws one of us to that footbridge. The strongest is Wrecka. And the best jumper is Dragon...or Seabstian. But I trust the ninja more", he smirked. "No offence."

"Of course", smiled Sebastian. "He has always been the better ninja."

"A pyramide?"

"Yup, that plan is great", agreed Axel. "And Tilian is our leader, so he should decide how we make it."

"Leader? This team doesn´t have any leader", said the clone confused.

"Wrong", said Lioness and smiled. "We chose you as our leader."

"Oh, thanks guys." Tilian rubbed the back of his neck. Then he cleared his throat. "So, let me see...Axel, kneel down over here. Hawk and King next to you and...yeah, Sebastian too. Then we have the first stage..." Tilian thought for a moment. "On the next shouldn´t be too heavy people...Lioness, Firekat, you climb on the guys. And Shark, you go next to them. Now we need two others."

He looked at the others. "Stingfly, Rayza, you´re the next stage." Tilian, Wrecka and Dragon helped them up. Then Tilian nodded to Wrecka. Together with Dragon he could manage to help the clone on top of that pyramide. Axel who was on the first stage moaned in pain.

"A bit faster please", he growled. Sweat stood on his forehead. "My back will thank you for that...Shark, your knee hurts!"

"Woah, sorry dude...but Hawk can´t stand still, I have to base on you if I don´t want to fall! And the rhino is really heavy..."

Dragon jumped and landed on Wrecka´s shoulders. Tilian nodded. "Throw him as high as you can. And Dragon, you jump as high as you can. It shoul work." Dragon placed on Wrecka´s hands and waited for his signal. Then Wrecka threw him as Dragon jumped. Very high he rose into the air and tried to grab the edge of the footbridge. He missed it only about inches.

"Um...guys? That dragon will land a bit hard maybe..." Shark looked up and saw that Dragon fell. But he could get control back and landed with is feet on Wrecka´s shoulders again. The landing was that hard that he struggled not to fall. Before he fell he turned a backflip and landed in front of the pyramide.

"Puh..." Axel breathed out relieved. If Dragon had fallen the whole pyramid would have done, too. And a lot of heavy people would have fallen on Axel.

Tilian sighed. "Another try", he said.

"Another try?!" Firekat already shook a little. Like Lioness and Hawk. They all couldn´t hold their position any longer. "Why are you not in this pyramide? Id switch with you any time."

Suddenly Hawk collapsed. Lioness and Shark, both had based on his back, fell too. Axel was buried under Shark and collapsed. Stingfly was on the two and fell with them. He tried to grab Rayza not to fall. But he just pulled him off Firekat´s back. Firekat fell too, she landed hardly on King and Sebastian. Both of them collapsed too. Wrecka had nothing to stand on and landed on all of them. As he landed on his teammates they all moaned in pain.

Tilian looked at them and shook his head. Dragon just bowed to him. "I´m sorry about this", he said.

"Doesn´t matter", said Tilian. "We´ll try another time."

"Woah, without me guys!" Hawk tried to get free. On him laid nearly everyone.

"Alright, I´ll take your place." Tilian looked at him. Axel looked up.

"Hawk´s place? But he´s on the first stage next to me, you´re not strong enough yet for this!"

"I know about my powers better than you do", replied Tilian. "Okay guys, stand up." He and Dragon helped the others up, then they built the pyramide again. Axel knelt down, next to him Tilian, King and Sebastian. As Shark and Lioness climbed on them Tilian winced a little and cramped his face in pain, but could stand it. Firekat placed next to Lioness again. Stingfly and Rayza were on the next stage. Again Wrecka was on top of the pyramide.

"Are you okay?", asked Lioness Tilian who was under her.

"Don´t ask. Tell Dragon to jump!", he growled back. Dragon jumped onto Wrecka´s hands again, then the clone threw Dragon again. He flew through the air and could reach the edge of the footbridge.

"Did he make it?", asked someone. Suddenly the pyramide collapsed again. Lioness laid now under Stingfly, Firkat and Wrecka. Under her laid Tilian, next to him Rayza and Axel. King and Sebastian were somewhere under the others. Tilian´s face was turned to her.

"Great plan you genius", growled Lioness. "I guess one rib of mine is broken."

"Hey, see the positive. Dragon is now up there and my ribs are not hurt", grinned Tilian.

"What´s the positive for me?"

"Um...I won´t complain all the time about my pain coz I broke me nothing!" He smiled brightly. "And I´m good in complaining. Rayza is the best idol ever."

"Hey!", shouted someone from under Firekat and Wrecka.

Lioness smiled and kissed Tilian shortly. He deepened the kiss until Lioness broke it. She tried to get free and rolled out of the collapsed pyramide. Soon the others were free again. They looked up to the footbridge. Dragon was gone. But after some minutes the energy barrier disappeared. They were free again. Dragon appeared on the footbridge and jumped down, landing gently on the ground.

"Let´s find Garrett and Liz and get outta here", said Axel. They ran away from their prison and towards the door in which Lizard had disappeared in. The team reached a corridor with a lot of doors.

"This building is larger than it looks like", said Hawk while they ran a little slowlier until they just walked to make sure they would find the right way. They looked carefully into the rooms right and left to the corridor. There were empty labs or rooms full with boxes. After sneaking downstairs they found another lab.

"I´ve been here some hours ago", said Tilian quietly and looked around a corner. As none was there he told the others to follow him. Tilian stopped and looked around. Over a chair laid something. He smiled slightly and picked the jacket up. "I´ve been in search of this", he said quietly and put on the jacket of his jumpsuit.

"So", said Hawk."Now that we´re all completely dressed we should find Garrett."

"And Liz", added Axel.

"Yeah, her too."

**Okay, there will be four more chapters and the story is finally OVER! Till then...umm...reviews please? **


	25. The Fight against the Lizard

The Fight against the Lizard

"Do you know where to go?", asked Axel his clone. Tilian looked slowly around.

"I guess down this corridor. Lizard must be somewhere down here", replied Tilian and led the group. "I´d say we split up. The corridor goes into two different directions. One group takes the right way, the others the left one."

"Axel, Dragon, King, Firekat and Rayza come with me", said Tilian. "Lioness, Sebastian, Shark, Hawk, Wrecka and Stingfly, you go into this direction." Everyone agreed. Tilian´s team turned right, the others turned left.

"What if we find Lizard?", asked Rayza.

"Then we fight him", replied Tilian and smiled. They opened carefully the first door in the corridor. "Nothing", growled King. But they had more luck in the next room. "Our weapons!"

The room was filled with weapons, but in one corner laid the Tagblasters and Tagswords of the team. Even Dragon´s sword. "Let´s take them. It´s better than running around with anything." Before they left the room Axel put some smoke bombs into his pocket. Just in case.

Quietly sneaking they came deeper into the building. The grey walls and the rare light let the corridor look creepy. But they didn´t want to turn on the light. Maybe someone could see them then. To everyone´s surprise there was no single supervision camera on the corridors. Honestly they were glad about that. Firekat stopped and sniffed. Her face turned serious.

"Someone is here...it´s a lizard, I can smell him", she said quietly.

"The only one I see is right next to me", said Axel.

"No, it´s not Tilian", said Firekat and continued sniffing. Slowly she crept down the corridor. After a metre she stopped again. "He´s coming closer", she whispered. "Into our direction. And it´s a soldier, I can smell his armour."

Quickly everyone looked around. If it really was a soldier they had to hide quickly. Rayza opened a door in the corridor and everyone jumped into the small room. They closed the door. Now they were in a very small closet. Outside they could hear the steps of the soldier. He walked past them and finally his steps became more quietly until they disappeared.

"Someone´s standing on my feet", growled King.

"Shhh!", hissed Firekat and listened. "Hey, can you stop breathing into my ear? I´m trying to listen!" Axel stopped breathing and Firekat nodded satisfied. Then she told them that no one was around. Quickly Tilian opened the door and they all fell into the corridor, snapping for fresh air. Dragon stood up and looked around the next corner while the others still struggled to stand up.

"We have free way", said the ninja quietly. The rest of the team followed him around the corner. Suddenly they heard a sound behind them and turned around.

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The other part of the team hadn´t found anything or anyone yet. There were not much doors in the corridor. If there was one there were mostly boxes in it. "Where would you hide a computer freak and a baby?", asked Wrecka as they turned around a corner.

"Guys..."

"I think they´re deeper in this building", said Lioness, ignoring Hawk who tried to tell them something.

"Maybe if we get downstairs the next stairs we reach?", suggested Sebastian.

"Guys..."

"Hawk-man, what´s up?", asked Shark annoyed. He turned around and saw it. "Uh...dudes? We should get away here..."

"What?" Now all of them turned around. And saw a soldier coming down the corridor. He hadn´t seen them yet. "Into that room, quick!", hissed Stingfly and opened a door. All of them ran into the room and closed the door tightly. Now they were in a cloak room. Uniforms and armors of soldiers hung on the walls. Even boots and helmets stood around.

"Maybe we should put them on in case some other soldiers come along", suggested Lioness jokingly.

"That is a good idea", smiled Sebastian. Hawk looked at him.

"No way you will get me into that uniform!"

"Of course we could ask Wrecka to put you into one of them", smirked Stingfly.

"Woah, now my own clone threatens me?" Hawk crossed his arms in front of his chest. "This is getting weirder and weirder."

"No, it already is weird. So, will you put on that uniform?" Lioness looked at Hawk. Slowly she could convince him. Some time later they had put on the uniforms. "Why don´t those things have different sizes?", asked Wrecka who tried to get into one of them.

"Coz those clones have all the same size", said Shark. "That means our leader dude is too small or you´re too big."

Wrecka growled something the others couldn´t understand. Then he threw the uniform away. "Doesn´t work. How shall I get my horn under the helmet?"

"Alright", said Lioness. "Then we´ll go and you come after us when no one is around."

They went out on the corridor again. "I guess we have to take this way", said Rayza and pointed at the door at the end of the corridor. "Maybe we find Garrett or Liz in there." The others agreed. "Or we find Lizard."

"Or something much worse", said Sebastian. They walked towards the door and opened it carefully to get a short look in.

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Two soldiers came towards them, they talked to each other. "I´m wondering what´s so special on this very first clone", said one of them. They were talking about Tilian. "I mean, he´s not as strong as we are! So what does he want from him?"

"Strong? Man, haven´t you heard of what happened in the tower?"

"No, tell me."

"Some guys survived that explosion. They saw the fight between the clone and our master. And they say he fought even longer than anyone of us ever did before. They say he stood up even though he was badly hurt! That is so special on him. His inner strength is really great", replied the soldier.

"Inner strength? If he survived really that long in the fight against our master his physical strength must be great too."

"As I said."

The two walked past the team. They had hidden in a closet again. But fortunately this one was larger. "Ya see? They like me", grinned Tilian ironic. "At least they don´t think I´m a weak coward."

"No, they don´t have to think that", said Firekat and stepped out of the closet. "You _are_ a weak coward and they already know."

"If this situation wasn´t so serious I would have locked you in that closet for the next month", said Tilian as friendly as possible. He turned away from Firekat and walked down the corridor. "What´s up? Do you want to root over there?" He looked back at his team. At once they followed him.

As he turned around and wanted to continue walking he suddenly seemed to crash into something invisible and fell backwards on the ground. Confused he looked up. "Um...what was that?", asked Axel. Carefully he walked over to Tilian and rose his arm. To his surprise he touched an invisible wall. Now he was really confused. Axel touched the wall and tried to find any way through it. He walked along it and tried to _feel_ a way through it. Tilian stood up.

"As if someone placed a wall right in front of us", he mumbered.

"But that soldiers went through it!", said Rayza.

"Maybe it appeared after they went down this corridor?", guessed King. Firekat walked over to Tilian and Axel and pushed them both away. Her claws came out and she simply cut through the invisible wall. Soon their way was free again.

At the end of the corridor they found a door. Carefully they opened it and stepped into the room behind it. Axel looked around. Suddenly he went into fighting position. "Soldiers!", he warned the others. "And...uh...Wrecka?"

The five soldiers and Wrecka turned to the team now. One of them put of his helmet. And _he_ was a girl. "Axel?" Lioness looked confused. "We thought you went into another direction!"

"We thought the same of you", replied King. "Maybe both corridors end in this...lab."

This was the largest hall in the whole basements. It was a giantic lab. Two footbridges went along the walls and a door was at the end of each of them. Some glass containers stood under the footbridges, they were filled with water. But nothing else was in them. There were also a lot of computers, microscopes, machines and cupboards or shelves with samples of different chemical stuff.

Slowly they walked into the lab and looked around. Because of their curiousity they separated and walked around in that lab. While King and Lioness checked some notes and programmes on the computers the other clones got a closer look at the machines. Axel walked over to a darkgreen metal cupboard which looked very old. A lot of drawers were in it. He looked at the small descriptions on the drawers.

He found one interesting drawer, its description said something of _Project Tilian_. Axel opened it carefully. The drawer was larger than Axel had thought. In it were files, some discettes, CD´s and a small key. "Hey, Tilian, get a look at this!" Tilian came to him.

"What´s that?", he asked and looked at the opened drawer.

"The description said something of _Project Reptilian_. Maybe it deals with you", guessed Axel. "Thought you wanted to see this."

Tilian just nodded. "What´s that key for?"

"I don´t know, do you see anything with a lock?" Axel looked around. Tilian did the same.

"What about that drawers in the wall overthere?", asked Stingfly and pointed at a lot of drawers in a wall in opposite of the cloning containers. Tilian grabbed the key and walked over to them. There were numbers on the drawers. He got a look at the key. A small number was in it. _195_ said it. Axel followed his clone and searched for drawer number 195.

"I got it!" Axel pointed at a drawer in the middle of the wall.

"Alright. Then let´s see what´s in there." Tilian put the key into the lock and turned it around. The lock sprang open. The drawer came out of the wall. Both guys were dumb-founded.

"Wow..." Axel took a small box, made up of glass, out of the drawer. In it were some small green scales. Tilian took another glass. In this one were some red hairs.

"Seems that this are the samples of my DNA", he mumbered. "Interesting. Guess he plans more clones."

"Oh, that guess is right", grinned Lizard who stood now behind the two. Both whirled around and looked shocked at him.

**3 Chappies left! Review please! xD**


	26. A Battle and the End

A Battle and the End

At once Axel and Tilian went into fighting position. Now the rest of the team noticed Lizard too, they ran towards them to help their teammates. But before they could attack Lizard Tilian did. Axel was surprised about how angry his clone was. Tilian jumped, tried a punch and missed because Lizard ducked in time. Tilian whirled around, kicked some times and turned a somersault to land behind his clone.

Lizard ducked or jumped to avoid the attacks. Sometimes he blocked them easily. Tilian didn´t seem to be a real enemy to him. He just smiled slightly as Tilian tried some other attacks. Attacks that were that hard that Axel would have had problems to block or avoid them. Lizard didn´t attack him. He blocked or avoided the attacks, but he didn´t attack Tilian.

Tilian himself turned a backflip and landed in fighting position. He was heavily breathing and sweated. But he didn´t want to give up. He wanted to kill that clone. For everything he had done, for everything he _was_ and became. Axel didn´t try to help his clone. He knew Tilian wanted to fight alone. The others knew that as well. They stood helpless around the two clones and watched the fight.

Lizard grinned. "Is that all you got?", he asked jokingly. "Honestly I expected a bit more of you."

"I´m just warming up", replied Tilian and tried not to sound tired. "Where are Liz and Garrett?"

The clone smiled. "Somewhere you won´t find in the next time. If there is a next time for you", he said.

Tilian growled angry and attacked his clone another time. He kicked, punched and ducked very fast and pushed his body to its limits. He tried to fight even harder than before. Lizard simply blocked his attacks. As he blocked Tilian´s next kick he grabbed his leg and threw him against the wall. With a moan of pain Tilian sank to his knees.

For some seconds he crouched there, then he jumped up and ran towards Lizard. Furiously he ducked, slided over the ground and through the clone´s legs. Lizard didn´t know that attack yet. Tilian pulled on his leg, stood up behind him and kicked his back before he fell. Surprised Lizard landed on the ground, but stood up again. He stared surprised and angry at Tilian who just grinned slightly.

Nevertheless he was tired. His chest rose and fell very fast, he nearly panted instead of breathing. Sweat stood on his forehead, but he forced his body to fight. To fight until Lizard was beaten. And he wouldn´t give up that fast. Lioness looked scared at him. If Lizard attacked him with all his powers Tilian wouldn´t have a great chance. He was already too tired to fight a long fight with an enemy who was much stronger than himself. Moreover Lioness noticed Tilian´s legs shook a bit.

Very slowly Lizard walked over to Tilian. His steps became faster, then he was close enough to hit Tilian. He kicked hardly so that Tilian had problems to block this attack. But he could. Faster than before Lizard went to the ground, kicked Tilian´s legs. Just in time he jumped to avoid this, he whirled around and kicked Lizard who stood up again. He could block that weak attack.

Axel could manage to get over to Dragon without that Lizard noticed anything. He was that concentrated on the fight with Tilian that he didn´t notice what happened around him. Axel bent over to Dragon.

"Can you get outta here and try to find Garrett and Liz? But please in a way he won´t notice", he whispered. The ninja nodded and bowed a little to Axel. Soon he disappeared in another door at the end of the lab. Fortunately Lizard hadn´t noticed this.

Lizard punched Tilian hardly so that he fell on the floor. He couldn´t stand up and Lizard just grinned as he saw how weak Tilian already was. "In less than two minutes you will stop fighting me", said Lizard grinning.

"Why should I?", asked Tilian and stood slowly up.

"Because I have a new weapon that is much stronger than you."

"We´ll see about that", hissed Tilian back. But before he could start another attack a door opened. Lizard just grinned and looked at the door, just like everyone else. Someone stood in the doorway. It was a tall young girl, red hair, green skin and red eyes. She looked as if she was nearly twenty years old. But she wasn´t. Axel bet that the girl was not older than some months. Or even weeks.

She wore a darkgreen jumpsuit with some lightgreen parts and simple design. Slowly she walked over to Lizard and stopped next to him. Tilian just laughed ironic as he looked at her. "Now you made a clone-girl? And want me to fight her? You´re insane", he said growling.

"You wouldn´t fight her if you knew who it was", smirked Lizard and placed his hand on the girl´s shoulder. Tilian looked at her, but didn´t get any clue.

"So who is it?"

Lizard laughed. "Don´t even recognize your own daughter."

"She´s...Liz?" Tilian looked shocked at her. "But she´s too old!"

"Nope. With my high technology I could finish her aging process in some hours. And now she´s on my side. We´ll see if she can fight better than her father. I certainly hope so."

"No way am I fighting her", replied Tilian.

"We´ll see about that", smirked Lizard. Liz smiled slightly as she got the order to attack Tilian. First she walked towards him, then she began to run and started a kick. Breathless Tilian blocked her attacks, ducked, jumped and blocked again. But he didn´t attack her. He didn´t want to hurt her. Liz turned a backflip, landed on his shoulders and kicked him hardly.

Weakly he fell on the ground. "Why are you fighting me?!", asked Tilian desperated and struggled to stand up. But Liz kicked him again so that he landed on his back. She grinned slightly and placed her foot on his chest to prevent him from standing up.

"Because that´s my order", she hissed quietly.

Tilian growled shortly, then he closed his eyes for some seconds. As he opened them he roared furiously and grabbed her leg to throw her away. Surprised Liz crashed into a cloning container. The glass got thin clafts and some water drained out of the container. Liz fell to her knees, but she stood up at once. Tilian forced himself to stand up too.

Angry Liz growled, jumped towards him and threw him to the ground again. Tilian landed on his back a second time and looked at Liz who sat on his chest, her right fist ready to punch him. With the other hand she pressed his chest to the ground. Tilian panted hardly and tried to sit up, but he was too weak and Liz was too heavy at the moment.

"Why do you follow his orders?", he asked quietly. "I...I´m your father!"

"Say what?! You´re just a clone, your creator took your genetic material without that you knew it and put it into a synthetic egg cell. What a great father, you didn´t even take care of me!" She tried to punch him, but quickly Tilian moved his head away. He replied nothing and just grabbed her shoulders. She struggled to get free and hissed furiously.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind and lifted her so that Tilian could get free. Axel just smiled at his clone who nodded thankful to him. Liz was not so glad about this. Angry she rammed her elbow into Axel´s stomach and kicked his legs away. That way she got free while Axel laid on the ground and held his stomach in pain. Quickly, but pressingly breathing, Axel got up and got slowly into fighting position.

Liz grinned at him. Meanwhile Tilian fought with Lizard again. Axel glanced at them, but then he looked at Liz again. "There´s no need to fight us...or at least him. He took care of you, we found you in the lab of this insane lizard!" Axel tried to convince Liz.

"Why should I listen to you?!" She moved quickly forwards and spat paralyzing venom at Axel. Axel himself moved away so that the venom landed on the ground. He used this second of Liz' confusion and kicked her legs away, then he pressed her body to the ground and knelt over her. Surprised she looked into his face with her red reptile eyes. Axel wanted to punch her, but something let him hesitate. Something in her look.

With a very quick move Liz rolled over Axel and sat on his chest now. Before she could start another attack she heard a scream from behind. Axel had heard it too and both looked now at Lizard and Tilian.

Tilian laid on his back, Liz stood over him, ready to kill him. Liz jumped up and ran over to them. Quickly she placed in front of Lizard and stopped him. Surprised he looked at her.

"No way! He´s _my_ father, I´ll finish him off", she hissed. Lizard just nodded and took some steps backwards. The girl looked at Tilian now. He sat slowly up and wiped the blood away that came out of the corner of his mouth.

"Sounds as if you were proud that I´m your father", said Tilian quietly hissing. But his voice sounded disappointed.

"No. But I´m proud when I killed the great Tilian, clone number 0001 and arch enemy of my master", she replied and her eyes narrowed.

"Woah, the full name was a bit too much", complained Tilian. "But that _great_ fits quite good to your sentence." He grinned slightly. But his grin disappeared as he looked deeply into her eyes.

"Some last words?"

"Yes. I want you to know that I took care of you. After we found you in the lab I took care of you because I didn´t want to let you live with this lizard", said Tilian seriously. "Because you´re my daughter. I...love you."

"You´re lying..."

"It´s the truth", agreed Axel and stood slowly up. "We all took care of you. But it´s your decision who you really want to kill. Your father who took care of you all the time or perhaps this lizard behind you who put you into some containers and tried experiments on you."

Liz looked at Lizard now. He hissed angry. "Finish them off, both of them!", he ordered impatient. Before he could say anything else he suddenly winced and sank to the ground. Dragon stood behind Lizard and pulled his sword out of the clone´s back. Blood ran down the blade and fell silently on the ground where it left small red puddles. Quietly he put the sword back into its scabbard on the ninjas back.

Everyone looked shocked at him and the dead clone on the ground. Liz ran over to the clone and knelt down next to him. She looked up at Dragon. "You killed him!", she shouted angry and stood up.

"He deserved it", replied the ninja shortly and walked over to Axel, leaving Liz next to Tilian´s clone. Axel himself sneaked over to her and laid his arm around her shoulders. Angry she hissed at him, but didn´t move.

"Why are you crying?", he asked quietly as he saw her tears that ran down her cheeks and fell on the clone´s dead body. She glared angry at Axel. "You have no reason to do so. He just used you for his crazy experiments. Maybe he wanted to kill you as well later."

Liz didn´t reply. "Come with us, if you want. Of course you could stay here and take his place. Then you´re the leader of the CP and of this city. Or you come with us", he suggested whispering. Axel looked into her face. Her elegant looking reptile eyes stared at the ground. Somehow they fascinated him. And somehow they were beautiful. Some of her red hair fell into her face. She looked at Axel as he stroke them out of her face.

She swallowed. Now her anger was gone. "I...I´ll come with you..." Axel helped her standing up. Only now he noticed Tilian stood next to them. He placed his hand on Axel´s shoulder.

"Guess it´s over now", he said. "No one is left to fight against us. And if we fulfill our plan no CP will ever control this city again."

Liz looked at him for a long time. She seemed to study Tilian´s face while he talked to Axel. As he noticed Liz stared at him he looked at her seriously. Liz winced a bit as he looked straightly at her. But Tilian turned away from her and walked slowly away. Liz ran after him and held him back. "Wait, please..." He turned to her again.

"I...I´m sorry about this...", she began and looked at the ground. "I just didn´t know who to trust..."

"No big. I´m just glad you´re on our side now", smiled Tilian weak. Liz fell around his neck and hugged him tightly. Tilian hugged her back and Liz was close to her tears. She sobbed very quietly while Tilian tried to comfort her.

"Thanks, Dad", she whispered and buried her face in his chest. He looked a bit confused, not being used to the fact that someone called him "Dad".

"Great happy ending guys", smirked Hawk. "But we should get outta here now."

"And blow everything apart again", grinned Garrett. Dragon had found him and brought him back before he had killed Lizard.

"Let´s go!"

"Team, gear it up!" Axel grinned brightly and they headed for a way out.

**Two more chapters to go...Reviews, dudes and dudettes! Please! ))**


	27. It's Over

It's over...?

After getting out of the building and avoiding a lot of CP they finally were in safe again. Garrett pressed the button of a remote control and the building behind them blew up. The flames could be seen everywhere in Landmark City. And the smoke rose high into the sky, filling the air with a bad smell of smoke and fire.

The team went to the meeting place of the rebels. It was on the market place. The market place was a round place, around it stood houses in a circle and in the middle of it was a fountain. The rebels waited there since a long time, most of them had disappeared in the empty houses around to get some sleep. But some still were on the market place and began to cheer as the team arrived.

"Good news", said Axel smiling. "Lizard is dead, the CP headquarter destroyed. "

"A great reason for a party!", grinned Hawk.

Shark and Rayza agreed at once. "Yeah, let´s have one this evening! To celebrate our win!"

The other rebels agreed, too. "That´s a great idea. Let´s prepare everything!"

"Now let´s just hope the CP doesn´t want any revenge", said Garrett quietly. But soon he forgot his worries and helped the others.

So they began to prepare everything for their party. Axel helped Tilian, Sebastian, Hawk, Wrecka and Liz to carry food to the market place. Liz didn´t leave Tilian´s side. She was just too happy to be together with him. While they went from a supermarket back to the market place Axel caught himself very often staring at Liz. Something on her fascinated him and wanted him to look at her again and again.

One time she turned around and looked at him, smiling, but Axel just smiled shortly back and looked into another direction. Nevertheless he felt a strange prickle in his belly and glanced for a part of a second at her again.

They put the boxes with the food on the ground next to the fountain. Meanwhile the other rebels tried to decorate the market place a little. Some of them placed tables and chairs in front of the houses, put candles on the tables. Axel walked over to Lioness who was busy with finding glazier for their drinks. She was in one of the houses and searched in the cupboards.

Axel stepped into the kitchen and saw her looking into the cupboards. "Do you search something?", he asked and leaned with his back against a table, basing his ellbows on it.

"Very funny", replied Lioness. "I´m trying to find glazier."

"Maybe you should look in another house. In the one in opposite of this one some guys found a lot of the glazier you may search for", smiled Axel.

"And you´re telling me this now?" Lioness rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the help."

"Hey, why are you so aggressive?"

Lioness wanted to walk past him, but Axel stopped her, rosing an eyebrow. "Tell me what´s wrong."

Lioness sighed and sat down next to him on the table. "I just thought of what we´re going to do now. After everything is over. I have really no idea. We have no jobs, this city is half destroyed and has no government. We´re just planless people."

"That´s what´s bugging you?", asked Axel sceptic. "There´s more. Tell me everything."

"It´s because of Tilian...", she began.

"Something serious?"

"No...everything is okay, but I don´t know if it was so right to do all this. To get together with him and so on...I have just a strange feeling at the moment, I have no idea if it´s because of him or what I told you.."

"Does it feel wrong for you to be together with him?"

"No...", she replied quietly.

Axel smiled. "Then everything is okay." He walked out of the building and nearly crashed into Liz. She smiled at him and stroke her red hair out of her face. Axel looked deeply into her eyes and nearly forgot breathing. Just as Tilian came in too he looked away from he and smiled at his clone. Axel passed them and went across the market place towards King and Hawk.

"Look who´s there", smiled King. "We could need your help overhere." The two were sticking colorful flags to the houses. While Axel helped them he could just think of Tilian´s daughter. He always saw her red and beautiful reptile eyes in his mind...Slowly he sat down on a box next to the ladder and forgot giving King who stood on a ladder the next flag. He stared at the ground, deeply in thoughts.

"Yo, Axel!" Hawk seemed to pull him out of his daydreams. "Something bugging you?"

"No, not really." Axel stood up and gave King another flag. King looked asking at Axel, but said nothing. He knew something was up. Nevertheless he didn´t want to annoy him with questions.

Suddenly Liz came over to the three guys and smiled brightly. "Lioness asked me to help you guys", she smiled. "If you need my help." Axel looked at the house at the other side of the market place. There stood Lioness close together with Tilian. Hawk and King saw it too and understood.

"We already finished", said King. "But if you want you can help Axel installing the lights on the roofs."

"Okay." Liz smiled happy and followed Axel who went into one house with a box of chains of lights. The houses belonged to the old part of the city, built in late medieval times. That was one reason why this place was perfect for their party. The atmosphere was just awesome. And this house had no flat roof. Under the roof Axel told Liz to hold the box with the lights while he climbed out of the window.

"What is he like?", asked Liz and looked out of the window to face Axel. "I mean Tilian."

Axel looked at her and grinned slightly. "He´s very stubborn sometimes. If he plans something you can´t prevent him from doing what he wants. But for a clone he´s quite okay", he replied while sticking the first chain of lights to the wall. Liz nodded slightly.

"I don´t know anything about him", she said quietly. "Neither about you and your friends."

"You´ll get to know us better in a very short time", said Axel who concentrated because he didn´t want to fall off the roof.

"Then tell me something about you."

"About me?" Axel laughed shortly. "There´s not much to say. I´m sometimes as stubborn as Tilian, have the same terrible humor and learn a rare martial arts called Jo-Lan. You see? Not much to say."

"And...what about your family? Are they here or far away?"

Axel said nothing. He stopped with his work for a second, then he continued. He thought about his father. Some days ago he had thought him dead. And now he was back... "My father is here, he helps the others. And my mom...didn´t think of her in years", he said shortly. Liz looked away.

"Sorry that I asked this..."

"Why? You can ask whatever you want", smiled Axel back. He climbed along the roof back to the window and to Liz. Suddenly his right foot slipped off the small edge he stood on and he nearly fell. With only one hand he could manage to grab the window sill. Liz dropped the box to help him, but Axel looked down and began to grin. Before she could take his hand he let go of the edge and jumped backwards.

"Axel!"

Now everyone looked at the window. Axel jumped backwards, turned a backflip and landed on a streetlight close to the house. Then he jumped again, turning another backflip and landed in a crouching position gently on the ground. He stayed for a moment in this position to breathe deeply in and out, then he stood up. His friends had looked up from their work and spent jokingly applause now.

Jokingly Axel bowed to them, like an actor. "Thank ya all", grinned Axel. "I´m the next whole week here with my show!" Laughing he went back into the building. In the staircase he crashed into Liz who ran down the stairs. Relieved she looked at him and smiled weak.

"That was awesome...but you really scared me", she said. Axel just nodded and tried not to look into her eyes. He walked past her.

"Shall we go on?"

Liz nodded smiling and followed him upstairs. While the two continued their work Liz asked a lot of questions about Axel´s friends, Tilian or Axel himself. And for what reason ever they understood each other at once, sometimes Axel or Liz made a joke and both laughed. And somehow Axel felt great in her near. She listened to him, was interested and asked more questions. Moreover it was funny and exciting to be together with her.

In the evening, before the sun setted, they finished their work on all the houses. So the two went downstairs and on the market place again. There Tilian called Liz and Axel to them. They came over to the small group, Tilian, Lioness, Rayza, Wrecka, Sebastian and Firekat stood around a table and were talking.

"Alright dudes", began Rayza. "We have the lights, the candles, the tables and chairs, the drinks, glazier, food and very, very loud music." He grinned.

"Something else?"

"Nope, that was it", said Firekat. "And we even have some balloons for Wrecka." She rolled her eyes while King´s clone just grinned happy and satisfied. Firekat stretched and yawned a bit. "And this night no screaming baby will wake me up. One plus point for Lizard and his technology."

"True words", said Wrecka. Stingfly came to the table. He smiled slightly as he looked at Liz.

"Woah, Till, she´s hot", he grinned jokingly.

Tilian just crossed his arms in front of his chest. Liz looked away as Stingfly studied her. "Forget it, I don´t date anything that shares insect-DNA", she said and folded her arms in front of her chest too. Everyone began to laugh, except Stingfly, who went offended away.

"Cool reaction", praised Tilian. "If you ask me you´re much too young to date anyone."

"As if", replied Liz. "I´m no baby anymore."

"Oh, you were some days ago."

"That doesn´t count", she said and looked into the grinning face of Tilian.

"It does."

Liz looked a bit angry. Quickly Tilian tried to calm her down again. "Come on, I need your help overthere", he said and she followed him to the bar that was built up in front of an old coffee shop.

Later, after sunset, the whole market place was filled with the gentle light of the lights on the roofs. And the candles on the tables spent a warm and comfortable light. The fountain´s water shimmered in this light like liquid silver. Most of the rebels sat around the tables and were talking to each other. Loud music came out of some speakers in front of the houses.

Some people even danced to the music in the middle of the market place and around the fountain. The others were eating or drinking, talking and laughing. Axel, Lioness, Tilian, Liz, King, Rayza, Shark, Sebastian and even Dragon sat around one table. The others sat around some tables in their near. Dragon had put off his mask. He laid back on his chair and closed his eyes.

"I´ll go and ask the DJ for some other music", grinned Shark and left the group.

"Does anyone want a drink?", asked Liz. She stood up and walked over to the bar. "I´ll come with you." Rayza stood up and followed her quickly. King just grinned about this.

"Seems the other clones have a crush on her", he said jokingly. He looked at Tilian.

"I already told her, no dates with mutant clones", said Tilian and based his arms on the table. "But I said nothing of humans." He looked at Axel now. Axel himself was confused and looked back at him. Tilian rolled his eyes. "Of course I mean you."

"Me? But..why?"

"Because I know from a very secure source that my dear daughter has a crush on _you_", said the clone. Axel rose asking an eyebrow and Tilian moaned annoyed. "She told me that."

"Oh..."

"And I know from a secure source that you feel the same way", grinned Sebastian.

"How do you want to know?" Axel frowned now but blushed slightly.

"Let me see...", he began. "You stare at her all the time, you´re blushing sometimes when she´s around and you simply like her." Axel looked at him surprised. "I have to know that, I´m your father." Sebastian laughed now as he saw Axel´s face. Shark came now back to the table.

"What did I miss?", he asked and sat down again.

"We´re just trying to get Axel and Liz together", said King yawning.

Shark frowned. "Isn´t that a bit weird? Tilian is Axel´s clone, he has his DNA...so if Liz is Tilian´s daughter she has a bit of Axel´s DNA too...hasn´t she? Woah, dudes, that´s complicated..."

"Doesn´t matter", smirked Lioness. She stood up and took Axel´s hand to pull him up. Then she pulled him to the bar where Liz and Rayza stood. Both were talking to each other. Lioness let Axel´s hand go as he stood next to Liz, then she pulled Rayza away from the bar and back to the table.

"Hey!", he protested, but Lioness could manage to get him back to the others.

"Sorry, fish-boy, but we need you overhere", she said and sat down again. Tilian rose an eyebrow.

"I thought of something more...spectacular, but this is good as well."

"And you´re sure this will work? Leaving them alone?" Everyone looked now at Axel and Liz who stood in front of the bar. They watched them curiously. Lioness just leaned back and watched them grinning.

"Of course it will work." They saw that Axel tried to open a conversation. A bit embarrassed he rubbed the back of his neck and avoided her look. But then Liz just smiled and took gently his hand to pull him over to an empty table. There they sat down and continued talking. And meanwhile Axel got more courage and was no more so shy. Now the members of the group turned to each other again.

Lioness looked at Tilian who stared at the table. "Now, that was easy", she said. "Wasn´t it?"

"Yeah, maybe a bit too fast. I mean some time ago he went furiously away because of jealousy...and now he seemed to fall for another girl", said Tilian thoughtfully. "So maybe his feelings aren´t true...?"

"As if", said Lioness. "Trust me. He´s head over heels in love with her. Just like I´m with you." She rose her head and kissed him. Shark just shook grinning his head.

"Now, dudes, that looks really weird", he laughed. Without breaking the kiss Lioness smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. Of course Tilian deepened that kiss and closed his eyes, just like Lioness.

Liz sat close next to Axel. He sighed quietly. "I´m just glad that this is all over now..." He had told her the story of their rebellion against Lee. Liz nodded understanding and leaned her head against his shoulder. Axel blushed slightly and his heart beat faster. Hesitating he laid his arm around her shoulder. Liz closed her eyes and smiled weakly.

Suddenly there was a loud noise. A helicopter flew over to the market place and stopped over it. The rebels recognized it as a CP helicopter and ran into the houses to take cover from an attack of the CP. Soldiers ran on to the market place, aiming at the rebels with their guns. Axel had tiped over the table and hid with Liz behind the tabletop. Carefully he looked over the edge of the table and saw the soldiers ordered the rebels to come out of the houses, otherwise they would blow up everything.

**The next one is the last one! Review plz! )))**


	28. One Last Fight

One last Fight

"Where are the others?", he asked quietly and tried to find his friends. He saw them on the other side of the place, they hid in a house. King looked out of a window and saw Axel. They switched asking looks. What should they do? Axel pressed his back against the tabletop. He thought desperated of any plan. Then suddenly he heard a voice and looked over the edge again. Just like Liz. She took his arm and held tight on to him.

"What do you want?", asked Tilian and walked towards the leader of the Soldiers. He held his hands over his head to show that he didn´t want to attack them. The leader told his soldiers not to attack him.

"We want you to come out and stop hiding. If you are prepared to talk about an offer we´re ready to give you send us your leader. We will talk without weapons."

"I am the leader", said Tilian seriously and put his hands down. "So what's that offer?"

"Complete surrender of all the rebels", began the leader. "If you do we may let you alive. Otherwise we have to kill all of you, without any exceptions."

"And what is the positive for us?", asked Tilian.

"You'll stay alive."

"That", replied Tilian. "Is no real offer. What you want has just positive sides for you." He folded his arms in front of his chest.

"We didn't think of giving you any advantages. You're all rebels, you hurt the rules in this city badly and you will be punished for this", hissed the leader. The soldiers rose their weapons and aimed at Tilian. But he didn't move.

Axel cursed quietly. "He's comitting suicide! Those soldiers will never listen!", he hissed angry. "Stubborn idiot."

"Come on, shoot me. What sense does this have? Then you killed one more rebel", said Tilian challenging.

"But then we killed their leader and they will be easier to catch."

"Wrong", smirked Tilian. "Even if I'm gone there are a lot of potential people who know exactly that they are chosen by me to be the new leader. Even though I didn't mention their names now, they know I'm talking to them. So my death won't cause anything to our group."

"And-"

"Nope, you didn't let me finish." Tilian cut the soldier off. Slowly he began to walk up and down. "We already planned that you guys would come here. We expected you. And you ran directly into our trap." He grinned.

Liz looked at Axel. "What does he mean?"

"I don't know...but I guess he's trying to scare them."

"What is that for a trap?" The leader looked around and laughed. "You're great rebels are hiding in their houses. How sweet. Shall we drink a cup of tea after that?"

"What a great idea", said Tilian with exaggerated friendliness. His face turned serious again. "But I guess this won't work. We're all very busy."

"What a shame. Now, come out of the houses or we blow them up! All of them!"

Tilian grinned. "Attack", he said simply. The rebels understood him. Even though they had no plan they ran out of the houses towards the soldiers. They had no real weapons, so they grabbed chairs, legs of tables and metal bars that laid around. The confused soldiers forgot that they had their own weapons. The rebels really ran over them. Axel ran over to Tilian, Liz followed him. Lioness came from the other side.

"Are you crazy?!", she nearly shouted.

"I'm improvising, that's all that was left", he replied.

"What are you going to do?", asked Axel quickly. The rebels fought hardly with the soldiers. In this trouble no one seemed to notice them. Tilian looked up at the two helicopters. A rope hung out of one of them, the soldiers had come out of it with the rope. Tilian grinned slightly.

"Again, improvising." He was about to run to the rope, but shortly he stopped and turned to them again. "Oh, and some last things." He looked at Axel. "Become happy with her", he smirked and turned to Liz. "Same to you." Tilian turned to Lioness and grinned. "And what I nearly forgot, I love you." He kissed her shortly, then he smirked at them and ran towards the helicopter that was about to fly higher.

He jumped and grabbed the rope at the last moment. As fast as he could he climbed it up till he reached the helicopter. The man in the cockpit noticed Tilian was hanging on the rope outside. He flew towards a building and tried to let him crash into the wall. Tilian was faster. He landed with his feet on the wall and jumped backwards without letting the rope go.

Finally he reached the helicopter and jumped into the cockpit. Without thinking about it he threw the man in it out of the vehicle and took the control. Quickly he turned it around and flew towards the other helicopter. "Let me see about the weapons..." Tilian looked at the pult in front of him. But he didn't know any of the symbols and words there. Confused he tried one.

Suddenly he lost control over the helicopter. "Hell, what did I do now?!" The other helicopter didn't move away, even though Tilian flew straight towards it. Lioness, Axel, Liz and all the others stopped in their fights and looked up.

"He's crazy!"

The two helicopters crashed into each other. They flew some hundred metres and landed in some buildings far away from the market place. First nothing happened, then a big explosion filled the air around the landing place with hot flames and smoke. Pieces of the vehicles went flying everywhere. Shocked everyone stared at the big trail of smoke that rose into the air. They couldn't see the burning helicopters.

"We have to get there, fast!", shouted Lioness. Axel ran away and came some moments back. He drove a soldier vehicle. "Found this on the street. Jump in!"

Lioness, Liz and the rest of the team jumped into the vehicle and as fast as Axel could he raced over the market place, over the streets until he found the place where the destroyed helicopters laid. They all ran towards the fire, as close as they could get. No one was around. The flames cracked loudly and the heat was terrible.

"Where is Tilian?", asked Lioness scared and stared into the flames. "Did he...?"

Dragon walked over to them and looked around. "It seems he didn't come out in time...", he said quietly. Liz sobbed soundless and buried her face in Axel's chest. He just wrapped his arms around her and tried to comfort her. But Axel himself didn't feel better than her. His best friend had died in that fire. He was gone now, forever. Lioness still stared into the flames and sank slowly to her knees. Tears ran down her cheeks and landed without causing any noise on the ground where they broke into a thousands of pieces. Like fallen glass.

The others looked at the ground. Quietly everyone grieved for Tilian. Each one on his own and personal way.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back on the market place the rebels had beaten the soldiers and threw them into the cellar of a house to keep an eye on them. As the team came back the rebels wanted to cheer, but something was wrong. They noticed the sad faces of all of them. Axel walked slowly but close together with Liz, King tried to comfort Lioness. All the others walked with lowed heads.

King told Lioness to sit down. She sat on the edge of the fountain to rest a bit. The others crowded around her, some of them sat down on the edge too. Even Firekat looked sad. "Never thought I'm gonna say this..but I guess I'll miss him", she said quietly. The team nodded slightly.

"And now he's gone...", said Axel and tried to comfort Liz.

"Who said I'm gone?" They all looked up. Tilian just walked towards them and smiled slightly. His clothes were torn up, burned and full of ash, dust and blood. He had some scratches in his face, on his arms and even on his legs. His body shook a bit, but he didn't mind as Liz jumped up and hugged him happily. He hugged her back and she buried her face in his jumpsuit.

"I'm so glad you're back", she cried.

"I couldn't let you guys have all the fun without me", he smirked slightly. Axel came to him and patted him grinning on the shoulder.

"You silly lizard!", he said jokingly. "Why do you always have risk your life?"

"Don't know, it's in my DNA", laughed Tilian and Liz let him go. Axel laid his arm around her shoulder and smiled. Lioness walked towards Tilian and stopped in front of him. His smile disappeared as he saw her face. Hardly she slapped his face and looked angry at him. Surprised and confused he looked at her.

"What was that for?!"

"That you started a one-man-show again!", she nearly shouted. But then she began to smile. "And you saved us all with this." She lifted her head and was about to kiss him when suddenly another slap hit his face. Shocked about the pain he stared at her.

"And that?"

"That you broke your promise again.You promised me to do something like this never again", she growled.

For some moments they just looked at each other, then she lifted her arm again. Tilian expected a slap and closed his eyes, expecting the pain. But it didn't come. As he opened his eyes he saw Lioness wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him gently. Surprised he just looked at her, then he deepened the kiss and closed his eyes.

"So all is over now? The CP is finally defeated?", asked Stingfly.

"I think so", grinned Shark. "All dudes are caught."

"And lay like christmas gifts prepared in the cellar", agreed Rayza.

"Now it's time for our party", said Wrecka. "Well...even though everything is destroyed."

The rebels didn't matter. They simply carried the broken furniture away and placed everything heal there where it had been. Then the party continued. While most of the rebels continued celebrating Tilians team sat on the stairs in front of a house, a little away from the party. They were talking.

"So, any ideas where we should live now? Lee is gone, we could live over the ground again", suggested Hawk.

"Yep, but it won't be easy to build up the city again", said King.

"Don't worry guys", meant Tilian. "I have an idea. This team, I mean all of us with all clones and so on, could live in that house overthere. I've been int here and it should be large enough for us." He pointed at a house near the market place. Its walls had lost a bit of the former yellow color, but it looked still okay. Moreover it had at least four floors. Enough for all of them.

"Great idea", grinned Firekat.

"By the way, has anyone seen Axel?", asked Dragon.

"Or Liz?", asked Lioness additionally.

"Just found them", grinned Shark. He pointed at a house in opposite of them. On the stairs sat Axel and Liz close together. They didn't notice the team watched them all the time. Liz lifted her head slowly and kissed him gently as Axel laid his arm around her shoulders. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he deepened that kiss, both closing their eyes.

"Impressing", grinned Stingfly. "And what does our daddy say to this?"

Tilian smirked. "Just that it's impressing how fast they grow up..." He sighed jokingly.

"But don't disturb them, that's just too funny to watch. Um...does anyone have a camera?", asked Hawk grinning.

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A month later the city was nearly normal again. The rubble from the fights on the street and so on was carried away. Slowly more and more citizens returned and soon they built up the city, beginning with the old part. The house Tilian had suggested was just perfect. They had four floors, on the ground floor was a very large kitchen with a big living room. The stairs led up to a row of rooms. They needed all of the empty rooms on the first and second floor. Under the roof was something like their second living-room. Something like a chilling area.

Of course Tilian and Lioness shared a room. Firekat, Wrecka, Stingfly and Rayza got own ones on the same floor, just like Shark and Hawk. Axel and Liz got a room together and the second floor. On this floor lived Sebastian, Dragon, Garrett and King too. And living together with their clones was really funny. With the time they understood each other very well so that it was no problem to manage their everyday life.

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One evening Tilian, Lioness and Axel stood on one of the balconies. "So guys, our life goes finally on. We finished building up our house", said Axel and sighed. Lioness took Tilians hand and Axel grinned.

"Any plans for the wedding yet?", he asked jokingly.

"Nope", replied Tilian. "And a lot of years will pass before you see me marrying anyone." He laughed shortly.

"Why? maybe just some months", grinned Lioness. Tilian shook his head.

"I need more time to get used to this."

"You're stubborn, that's all." Lioness gave him a short kiss and disappeared in the house again. Tilian stared smiling and absent-minded into the darkness. Axel looked at him and noticed the absent-minded look. He smirked.

"What's up? You look as if you met a ghost or something."

Tilian didn't even look at him, but smirked. "Nope, no ghost. I'm just totally in love, that's all." He laughed shortly as he saw Axel's face and went quietly back into the house. Axel shook smiling his head and stared into the darkness. So finally this adventure had found an end. And a new life its beginning.

**That's it! The story's over! 'Course I wrote a continuation for my little sister, but I don't want to put it up. If you're interested though, I'll think about it ;-) Review and tell me your opinion please!**


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